


Soul Dichromaswap

by coalburn



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AUception, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Female Frisk, Forgive the awful name, Human/Monster War, I am not a good writer, Monster!Frisk, Soul Dichromatism - Freeform, What-If, literally just wrote this cuz i need more soul dichromatism, please do not think that i am
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2018-12-19 15:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11900967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalburn/pseuds/coalburn
Summary: A Swap AU of BlackRazorBills excellent fanfic, Soul Dichromatism. (if you haven't read it, please give it a read here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6883084/chapters/15702928) The only swap is that Frisk, Asriel, and their families have swapped places. That means that Frisk is the monster royalty, and Asriel is the unlucky human. There are a few other changes here and there that will clear as the story goes on, but the main characters all keep their respective places.





	1. Capture

**Author's Note:**

> I am by no means a writer. This was merely written to scratch my itch for more Soul Dichromatism, and it is my hope that this will be a fun little side-story for fans of the original fic that gets updated a bit more frequently. Please note that the first few chapters (especially the first and second chapter) will follow roughly the same structure as the original fic so that the repercussions of the swapped characters can be more easily seen. You can expect the major changes to start occuring around chapter... 17, probably? I plan on pacing this story to be quite a bit faster, and I hope to update at least once a week (hopefully). You can expect the characters to be a bit more proactive than in the original.

"We caught the last one, your majesty. Captain Undyne has it restrained!"

Frisk turned to face Astigmatism, her grip on her sword's hilt tightening. She nodded for the monster to lead the way.

The one-eyed monster wordlessly began leading Frisk through the remains of the town that had just been conquered. Dust and the bloody corpses of the town's former inhabitants littlered the streets.

Frisk always knew people would die under her command each battle; this was war, after all. It still hurt to see it actually happen, though. Most of her remaining forces were busy cleaning up what they could; the tamers were taking the almagates back to their crates, while the soul-takers were pulling out colorful hearts from the remains of the fallen humans. Frisk noticed most souls were intact; human soldiers seemed to be trained to shatter their souls upon death to prevent monsters from getting ahold of it.

That meant that these were just civilians.

The princess looked away from the scene in front of her, only for her gaze to land on a pair of shoes far too small to fit on an adult human; most likely, these were sized for an infant. She focused her eyes on the monster in front of her, hoping more than anything that she wouldn't be unfortunate enough to see the remains of whoever used to wear those shoes. Frisk had little sympathy for humans; after all, they had slaughtered her people and forced them underground years ago. But kids were still kids, and she hated that they were victims of the war.

It was almost too much. Monsters weren't warriors, not naturally at least. Monsters needed hope; not only did they thrive on it, but it was in large part what kept them alive. But for the sake of this war, for the sake of justice, they had to put aside the love and compassion they depended on. The only thing that kept Frisk going was reminding herself of what humans had done to her people; and what humans had done to her mother.

But in each victory against the humans, hope was lost. Their successes were hurting them almost as much as their failures. Frisk knew that despite everything, monsters had little chance of winning the war. Even with all of the battles won, all of the ground they gained, they were still losing. Humans were simply too persistent.

She forced the thought out of her mind.

"Here it is, your majesty", said Astigmatism as they walked into what Frisk could only guess was the town square, which was currently full of monsters. The group of monsters surrounded the center of the square, which was covered in blood. Frisk wondered how many humans had been killed right where she was standing. Then, she noticed the severed human limbs lying in the streets and wondered which of her royal guards was responsible for this. More than anything else, however, she was just relieved to not see any dust.

In the very middle of the square stood Undyne, the leader of the royal guard, who was flanked on either side by two of her best royal guards, Dogamy and Dogaressa, with the exceedingly large Greater Dog standing behind her. She guessed that those three had been responsible for apprehending the last human.

Frisk let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. When she saw the crowd gathered around the square, for a brief moment she was worried that she had lost yet more troops after the battle had ended. Thankfully, that was not the case. Still...

Frisk's troops were ordered to kill any humans they found on sight. That meant that, somehow, the human had defended itself so well that it was easier to capture it than outright kill it. But that didn't make sense. If the human could defend itself that effectively, then surely it could fight back, yet none of her royal guards had been killed.

It didn't matter. Frisk just felt relief.

Her eyes finally landed on the human.

They were small when compared to Undyne, and slightly smaller than most human soldiers. Frisk guessed that they hadn't even reached adulthood yet. Their hair was a mess of blonde and blood red, and their ripped clothes had been dyed a dark crimson color. Deep cuts could be clearly seen on their arms, and although the human was looking toward the ground, Frisk could see a large gash that traveled all the way down the human's cheek. Blood poured from each of the humans wounds, seemingly coloring everything on them.

"That managed to hold off Dogamy and Dogaressa at the same time?"

"So small..."

"How was it able to fight back?"

The whispering among the monsters gave way to the sound of shuffling feet as her troops noticed her and stood at attention.

"The princess has arrived!" Frisk heard someone shout.

The human's eyes snapped to Frisk at the sound of her arrival. They had been crying. Frisk expected to see fury, or hate behind those eyes. That was normal; that was expected. She saw those emotions the eyes of everyone she had ever executed. But while there were traces of anger in those eyes, mostly, there was just pain. Deep, aching pain.

"My Lord, the last human. They were engaged in battle with Dogamy and Dogaressa when they were captured," said Undyne.

"They killed Chara...", the human said, seemingly to no one in particular.

Frisk suddenly understood the pain she saw in their eyes.

"Princess, what is the sentence?", said Undyne. At this point, however, that question was just a formality; everyone knew what had to be done.

The only option was to execute them. Monsters had tried keeping human prisoners in the past, but it never worked; humans would never give up trying to escape, and their natural physical strength and strong souls meant that if a human did manage to escape, many monsters would end up dead, especially if the human had a strong intent to kill. They had learned years ago that it was better to kill the humans and use their souls as fuel for their weapons.

If monsters were ever captured by humans and made prisoner, they never lasted long either.

Her train of thought was interrupted by footsteps approaching from behind her. Frisk turned around and saw a short skeleton wearing a blue hoodie: Sans.

"You aren't supposed to be here. You aren't a soldier, Sans," said Frisk.

"wouldn't be, if my brother weren't here," said Sans. That just raised more questions; Sans' brother, Papyrus, was also a non-combatant. How did he end up on the battlefield?

"seems like there was a mix up in some paperwork," Sans finished, as if he somehow knew what Frisk had been thinking.

"Papyrus is safe, right?" Replied Frisk, not bothering to hide the worry in her voice. Papyrus was too friendly for his own good, and would never harm a human, even if he were being attacked. But he was also her closest friend, and she wasn't sure how she would handle anything happenening to him.

"he's fine. he's also the only reason that kid is still alive." Sans gestured towards the human, "paps found him in combat with dogamy and dogaressa, convinced those two to spare the kid. good thing, too; the kid was giving them a run for their money. Greater dog could have taken him down, but not before someone got hurt. lotsa determination in that one."

Frisk was mostly just surprised the human didn't keep fighting after they were spared.

"I just wanted to save Chara. They... They're gone. They were murdered. They're gone..." the human stuttered, fighting to get out a sentence without breaking apart entirely. Once they had managed to get out the last word, the human began sobbing uncontrollably.

"wonder if alphys would like to take a look 'em. 's not everyday a human holds off two royal guards." Frisk looked back towards the skeleton. Frisk suddenly realized why he had mentioned determination earlier.

They might not kill this human after all.

Alphys had asked for human determination. Frisk didnt know what exactly it was, nor what it was used for, but she did know that it was in large part the source of a human's strength, extremely important to Alphys' research, and in short supply. After all, dead humans couldn't produce any determination.

Frisk took out her cellphone. With the press of a button, she opened her dimensional box and pulled out a small device shaped like a canine's skull. Alphys had given it to her for an occasion like this.

It was supposed to be a new way of restraining humans, supposedly by draining their determination. However, it was just an untested prototype; from what Frisk had been told, the machine was just as likely to kill the human as it was to capture it. She took a step towards the human.

Their crying had mostly come to a halt, Frisk saw as the human looked toward her. There was little fear present in their eyes. Instead, there was acceptance. It was the face of someone who knew they were about to meet their end.

"Undyne, shackle them," Frisk said.

Undyne reached into her inventory and pulled out two pairs of shackles, quickly putting them onto the human's arms and legs.

"Your majesty, are you sure about this?" Undyne asked. This would be the first human captured in a long time; it was natural to have doubts.

"You're going to capture me?" Asked the human. They didn't seem happy about not being executed; instead, they seemed defeated. Frisk said nothing in reply, instead she took a step toward the human, and reached toward him, her hand stopping just in front of their chest. She took a deep breath, then focused on drawing out the humans soul.

Suddenly, a green glow came from the humans chest, followed by a small heart shape; their soul. Frisk took it into her hand, observing it closely. Human souls came in all different colors. From what Frisk had seen, no two soul colors were alike. Frisk was unsure of why human souls came in so many different colors, and Dr. Alphys' research into it had been fruitless.

It didn't matter. She had had a job to do, and it didn't involve pondering the nature of souls. She raised the small skull-like object in her hand closer to the human's soul. When it came close, something seemed to activate it automatically. It floated off her hand and flew towards the soul. Suddenly, its jaws clamped down on the soul violently.

The human shuddered, then screamed.

They fell onto the ground, thrashing wildly while their soul vibrated, as if trying to shake off the object that had clamped hold of their soul. It was clear that the human was in extreme pain. Suddenly, as if their voice was torn from their throat, the screaming stopped, but they were still gritting their teeth. Frisk fought the urge to look away.

The green in their soul was slowly starting to drain. When almost all the color had drained, leaving it a pure white, the impossible happened.

Frisk's eyes were drawn immediately to the human's arm, where a patch of white fur was rapidly growing in. The human clutched at their shirt as their shape began changing, as if somehow that would make the process stop. Their limbs elongated, and their bones could be heard shifting within them.

The human suddenly grasped their head in discomfort, as two bony protrusions shot out of the top of their skull. Their eyes widened in horror when they felt them, as if just now beginning to realize what was happening. Frisk guessed what was coming next before she saw it happen; their face elongated into a muzzle and their teeth grew into fangs; their ears grew and become floppy, covered in white fur just like the rest of their new body. It finally stopped when the human had taken on the appearance of a goat-like beast.

They were a boss monster, just like Frisk.

The skull released the soul, which quickly went back into its owner's chest. The human- or, ex-human now- looked over their new body with a mix of confusion and pure horror. Finally, their gazed landed on Frisk, their body shaking, terror in their eyes. Frisk did their best to hide their own shock, but failed.

The other monsters in the sqaure were clearly shocked as well. The silence that had permeated the area was replaced by talk amongst themselves.

“A monster-“

“Turned into a monster-“

“But how, if the human-“

“Does this mean we can change the humans into our own?”

“We won’t have to kill-“

“We can show them our way-“

“We can win…”

A clamor started to erupt around. The air of fear and sorrow suddenly turned into joy, even as they stood in the middle of the corpses of the fallen. The monsters started to praise their ruler.

“The princess did it! The princess found a way!”

“We won’t have to kill! They can be like us!”

“We’ll show them our way! We can be one people!”

“We can win our peace! We can win the war!”

With each new cheer, Frisk could feel the monster's hope rising. Without meaning to, Frisk felt her own hope doing the same. Everyone in the square was shocked, from Undyne, to Sans, and even herself. But as a ruler, she did not have the luxury to show her surprise. Her people had to believe that this was intentional. Her people had to believe that a peaceful way to win had been found.

But would it work? Could captured humans be turned into monsters? Could they learn to love like monsters did? Their ranks would increase, and there wouldn't have to be anymore executions. They couldn't handle captive humans, but they could handle captive monsters. Maybe the very people they were fighting against could be united with them.

But Frisk was doubtful. She had never seen anything that made her believe that humans were worth saving. But maybe, if they were monsters instead, they could end the war without anymore bloodshed. Maybe, just maybe, there could be a true, permanent peace.

Her eyes once again landed on the former human. It was clear that they too thought the transformation was intentional. She scanned their face, trying to judge what they were feeling. She saw confusion, fear, anger, but most of all, she saw something that was all too familiar to her

She saw loss. Deep, painful, heartbreaking loss.


	2. Detainment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So if you somehow liked the first chapter, I made a second one. This chapter should make it fairly clear how different Frisk's opinion and experiences with humans are from Asriel's own in the regular SD.
> 
> Again, this closely follows the structure of the original. It will start branch off in later chapters.

Frisk paced around her office, holding a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other. As a monarch and a leader in the military, it was one of many papers she was required to review and sign that day, and already she had been at it for hours. No matter how quickly she tried work, there were always more papers to file. In all honesty, she could be getting everything done much more efficiently if she sat down at her desk that was only feet away from her, but she could only sit still for so long before it became painfully monotonous. 

It almost made her miss the underground. Almost. She could never trade the beauty she saw on the surface for the freedom from responsibility her childhood had offered, but it was hard to ignore the lack of free time in her schedule nowadays. When she wasn't filing paperwork, she was at the front giving orders to her troops and planning battle strategies. The only time she actually had to herself was when she was asleep. 

Sleeping was hard at times like these though. 

The only reason the monsters had been able to come to the surface was because a young human had been unfortunate enough to fall into the underground. Frisk's mother had found them, and despite her best efforts to heal the young human, their wounds from the fall proved fatal. Her mother had absorbed the human's soul in hopes to use it to find a way to peacefully free the underground. She spent so long traveling to the outside world, alone, bringing back the souls of naturally deceased humans. But in the end, her attempts failed, and she was murdered by the humans. Frisk still vividly remembered her mother stumbling back through the barrier, her fathers failed attempts to heal her, and how she ultimately crumpled to dust in her fathers arms. It had driven her father to madness. 

He absorbed the souls that were already brought to the underground, crossed through the barrier, and slaughtered everyone in the town that was responsible for the death of his wife. Now with the power of seven human souls, he broke the barrier, freed the monsters, and declared war on humanity. 

The monsters, with the near unlimited power of the king on their side, destroyed human city after city. There seemed to be no stopping their advance, and they gained ground quickly. Attempts at resistance did nothing but blow up in the human's faces, literally. First they sent bombs, but the king deflected them back, sending them towards the human's own cities instead. It had been devastating. Then the humans started using biological weapons such as viruses and gas, but they had no effect on the magic-based bodies of monsters. When the humans realized that monster bodies were especially vulnerable to physical attacks, they sent out armed troops. And it worked, for a short time.

But then the royal scientist, Dr. Alphys, found a way to weaponize the souls of deceased humans. She built soul-powered cannons, and discovered how to use the souls to create invulnerable monsters called Amalgamates. To this day, the Amalgamates were one of the most valuable weapons of war they had. But despite the monster king's strength, and their new weapons, monsters were still losing the war. Humans were too widespread, too numerous, and too persistent. If they destroyed one country, there were always others still willing to fight. Many of those countries were on islands or other hard to reach places, meaning the humans could retreat and rebuild their numbers. Monsters had no such luxury. Worse, their supples were dwindling quickly, most notably their supply of human souls. 

Sometimes, Frisk almost wished that they could have come to the surface peacefully. In fact, humans at one point attempted to negotiate a peace treaty with the monsters earlier in the war. But the king, still enraged at the loss of his wife, and the monsters, still celebrating their victories, rejected the offer. Now, after more than 30 years of war, peace was surely impossible. That is, it _was_ , until an accident had resulted in a human being transformed into one of their own kind. For the first time in a long time, they might have actually found a chance to have peace.  

Frisk set down the paper she was holding and stepped out of her office. She stopped for a moment on the bridge of her castle's wall to catch her breath and admire the beauty of the surface. She was stationed at a town called Greenlake, along with most her soldiers; the royal scientist, Doctor Alphys; and the captain of the royal guard, Undyne. Greenlake itself was little more than a small town on the edge of the combat zone, just far enough away to be considered safe, but close enough to the front that she could be there quickly if she was needed. Despite it's proximity to the combat zone, civilian monsters lived in it just like any other monster town, which was good. Monsters who faced combat needed to be surrounded by positive influences to keep their hope up, and the colorful homes and friendliness of the civilian monsters living in border towns like Greenlake helped tremendously. Human towns always seemed to be dull and grey. 

After the brief respite from her duty, she headed towards the white square building next to the castle. It was a fairly standard Royal Laboratory that was built some time ago. When news of the human turned monster reached Alphys, she left her lab at the capital and came straight to Greenlake to study them. Frisk made it clear to Alphys that the transformed human was to remain a secret for now, and she had also made sure that the monsters that had witnessed the transformation were sworn to secrecy. That didn't stop rumors from cropping up here and there, but they were rumors that filled her people with hope. She decided not to mess with them for now.

As she entered the lab, she was surprised to see just how quickly it had become a mess. Alphys was a brilliant scientist, but she was by no means clean, and it was clear that she had been working overtime to study the human more closely, which only served to exasperate the mess. She grimaced as she saw a stack of instant noodle containers near the sink. It was most likely what both Alphys _and_  the prisoner had been eating. For a second, frisk actually felt bad for the prisoner. She wouldn't wish Alphys' instant noodles on anyone. Alphys looked up from her work, surprised to see Frisk. She bowed respectfully.

"Your majesty... or, uh, princess Frisk," she said. Alphys was always worried about being too informal with Frisk, despite the fact they had grown close over the years. 

"Alphys, it's just Frisk. There's no need to be formal with me," Frisk replied, smiling.

"Heh, sorry. It's just been a while since we've talked face to face," said Alphys. Frisk nodded her head in agreement. 

"So how is the human... or, ex-human doing?" Frisk asked. 

"Umm, well his body seems stable for now, if that's what you mean. I think he's awake right now," Alphys walked towards a computer monitor on the wall. 

_He._ Frisk had wondered whether the human was male or female. Few monsters had been around humans enough to tell the difference between the two sexes, Frisk included. 

The monitor Alphys stood in front of flickered to life. On it was the image of a small white room with minimal furnishings. Laying on the bed was the captive boss monster. His white fur had been cleaned thoroughly, Frisk noticed, but he obviously hadn't been properly groomed. His fur was a mess. Although he had his back to the camera, Frisk could see that he appeared to be looking at his hand and  turning it over again and again, as if trying to comprehend his new form. 

"I'm sure you've already figured it out, but I... I never would have thought t-this would happen. This could change everything we know about the link between humans and monsters," Alphys said.

"You said he was stable for now. Could that change in the future?" Frisk asked. It was hard to believe that the monster on the screen was just recently a human strong enough to take on two royal guards at once. 

"W-well, I gave him a full check-up. From the outside, he appears to be a full monster. B-but, his body is still partly physical, and his soul is still technically a human soul. That's the problem. Human souls are always regenerating," Alphys suddenly looked very worried, "and while I d-don't think we'll have any trouble containing him if it regenerates fully, his body may not be able to handle the full power of their soul. It doesn't seem to be a permanent change, a-at least on the soul level. If their soul changes back... I'm not sure they would survive." 

Frisk imagined the prisoners body dalling apart into dust, or, worse, melting from the excess soul energy. She shuddered. 

"Can we use the soul drainer again?" Frisk asked. They could not lose this human.

"I-I don't think that's a good idea. It wasn't really designed be used multiple times. B-but, I may have found something that will keep him stable, for a while at least," Alphys walked to a table which held many of her past projects and picked up what looked like a bracelet with a lock on it, "This will drain his souls energy at a steady rate. It should keep him stable. We'll have to drain it's energy stores every now and then, b-but for now it should work."

"When are you going to put it on him?" Frisk asked.

"As soon as possible. We don't want to take anymore risks," replied Alphys, heading towards the cell door when she finished. Frisk stopped her.

"Alphys, let me do it," Frisk said.

"A-are you sure? I-I mean okay," Alphys replied, "You shouldn't have to worry about him attacking you, he hasn't been much trouble, a-and he hasn't gained any LOVE. But... be careful. He's still partly physical." Alphys handed Frisk the drainer. Frisk nodded. It was rare to find anyone these days that hadn't acquired LOVE. 

"I will be, Alphys. Now how does this work?" Frisk asked.

"I-it attaches to their soul automatically, like the soul drainer you used earlier. It has a transmitter, so I can keep track of it from here and make sure it's working properly. His soul is weak right now, s-so you might have a bit of trouble pulling it out, but I'm sure you'll manage," Alphys explained.

With that, Frisk headed for the cell door. 

* * *

When the door slid open and Frisk entered, the prisoner sat up on his bed and stared at her. He didn't bother hiding his surprise. Frisk approached the bed slowly, trying to gauge whether or not he might lash out, but she couldn't feel any anger in his aura. If anything, she felt fear in it.  

For the first time, she was actually able to take a good look at the prisoner. It was truly incredible just how thorough the transformation had been. He was taller now, taller than Frisk, even. Frisk had suspected that the human wasn't quite fully grown, but now it was clear that he wasn't. His horns gave it away; fully grown male boss monsters had much larger horns than his, though his horns were already bigger than Frisk's own and had begun to curve downward. His green eyes followed her intently. His golden blonde hair was mostly gone, with the only blonde left on him being highlights on the very top of his head, the beginning of a mane. She also noticed that he had a very short tail, unlike her own long one. 

If she hadn't seen him before his transformation, she would never know that the boss monster she was looking at used to be human. For a monster that used to be human, he looked surprisingly nice. His fur had been crudely brushed and looked like he had a particularly rough night, but besides that, he was a reasonably good-looking boss-monster.

"Uhh... Howdy," the prisoner greeted her. An awkward silence filled the room; Frisk wasn't entirely sure how to respond to such a casual greeting, given the circumstances.

"Hello," she finally replied, "I need you to stand up. Please." Frisk was unsure whether to be stern or kind, but instead accidentally ended up somewhere in between the two. The prisoner stood up without protest.

"What's this for?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"It's nothing to worry about. I just need to see your soul for a moment," Frisk said, before realizing that perhaps messing with someone else's soul was, in fact, something to worry about. The prisoner froze, clearly disturbed by the request. 

"M-my soul? Why?" He asked in response. He had every reason to be nervous; the last time Frisk pulled out his soul had ended very poorly for him.

"Your soul is currently... unstable. I need to put this... _thing_ on it to keep it safe," Frisk said, tapping on the side of the device in her hands. She decided that calling it a soul drainer would not help her case.

"Uh... okay. How does this work?" the prisoner asked as he stood up.

"Just stand still," Frisk replied.  She placed her hand just in front of his chest and focused on pulling out his soul. Suddenly, a white heart came out of his chest, staying closer to its owner than the last time. Unlike a monsters soul, the prisoners soul was still upright. Small tendrils could be seen coming off of it, anchoring it to its owner's body. Frisk noticed that traces of the souls energy were starting to come back: she could just make out a green outline forming on the edge of the heart. 

The human-monster stared curiously at the soul. Frisk knew that humans had no way to draw out their souls, meaning that the only time humans ever saw souls were when they were being taken by monsters. It was certainly a unique experience for a human to see the soul of a still-living human, let alone their own soul. Frisk lifted the soul drainer next to the heart. When it came close enough, it sprang to life, and quickly snapped around all three sides of the soul tightly. The lock on the drainer clicked in to place, and it suddenly began constricting the soul violently. 

The human-monster let out a sharp gasp, and fell back onto the bed to catch themself. Frisk reached toward them to stabilize them, worried that the soul drainer may be severely hurting the valuable captive, but stopped when he raised his hand toward her. As the pain subsided, his shaking stopped and he was finally able to take in a deep breath. 

"Are you okay?" Frisk asked.

"I... I'm fine. It just really hurt for a moment, that's all. It's fine now," he replied, clutching his chest.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think it would hurt you. This is our first time doing this," Frisk said. 

She realized she probably shouldn't have admitted to that fact.

The next few moments passed in silence. Frisk was by no means an overly quiet person, but she had no idea what to say to this prisoner. 

"My name is Asriel," he said, finally breaking the silence. 

"My name is Frisk," she replied. 

"Well... it's nice to meet you, Frisk," Asriel replied, but any pleasantness in his voice was obviously strained and his face had nothing resembling a smile. It was clear that he was uncomfortable being around the person responsible for his transformation, but Frisk was glad that he seemed to be trying to avoid being confrontational about it. Arguing was pointless; it would do nothing to change his situation, and he seemed to realize that. Frisk also knew that trying to be kind to him in return was also pointless.

Frisk was not interested in continuing the conversation further. The prisoner was clearly uncomfortable being around her, and already she felt as if exchanging just names was too much. She turned toward the door and started walking.

"That was all I needed for now. If you need anything, let us know." The prisoner did not say anything, and Frisk wasn't interested in know he had responded to what she just said. 

She had almost reached the door control when the prisoner finally spoke. Frisk turned to face him.

"Actually, I do have a question. Where..." he paused, clearly uncomfortable making the request. He seemed to be thinking intensly about something, as if carefully considering what to say next.

"Where can I get something other than noodles to eat?" he finished. 

That was obviously not what he wanted to ask. But Frisk didn't intend to press the issue further. Instead, she forced a smile, and opened the door.

"I'll make sure to find you something better to eat. Goodbye, Asriel."

And with that, she left.

 


	3. Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woah, look at that, another chapter appeared.
> 
> I have this story written up to chapter six, at which point I'll have to go from daily updates to weekly updates. This chapter in particular is the first to break the format from SD, and it gives a quick peak into Asriel's perspective. Like I've been saying, I want this AU to move faster than the original SD, so this is a sort of shortcut to explain some of his motivations a bit more clearly, and also explain how he was able to handle himself so well on the battlefield in the first chapter.

 

Two weeks ago, Asriel had been a human being. Two weeks ago, Asriel was the son of Asgore Dreemurr, one of the leaders of the United Nations military. Two weeks ago, Asriel had been visiting his best friend, Chara.

Two weeks ago, everything changed in a matter of hours.

 

That day, Asriel was staying with Chara at their house. Although Chara loved Asriel's parents as much as he did, they moved out the first chance they got. The town they settled down in was closer to the war front, but also much more isolated. Chara didn't like people in general, so the cities that Asriel and his family often had to stay in for meetings with government officials rubbed them the wrong way. The village they had settled in was much more their speed, and they could be to themselves far more often. For Asriel, it meant that he didn't get to see Chara nearly as often, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make if his best friend was happier.

Looking back, it was hard to remember the exact details of what had happened that day. Everything had happened so quickly that it all blurred together into a mess of  disorganized images and sounds. What he could remember vividly was that the town was attacked by monsters, he failed to save Chara's life, and he himself was turned into a monster. Everyone else in the town was slaughtered merciless. Asriel was the sole survivor.

Now, he was trapped. There was no way to escape the cell he had been put in, and there was no way to escape the body he had been trapped in. As he laid on the bed provided to him, he tried to focus on something, anything other than how bad things were, but that was impossible when it was his very body that was causing him so much grief.

He almost wished he had died with the rest of them. 

He tried to turn over in his bed from one side to the other, only for a bony protrusion coming from his head to obstruct his effort. His _horns_. He had horns now. He groaned in frustration. Unable to get comfortable, he sat up instead and looked over his new body once again. He still wasn't used to it, and he wasn't sure if he ever would be used to it. He didn't _want_  to get used to it.

The past few days had been a strange experience. Since he was trapped in a cell, he had very little to do other than be alone with his thoughts, so it was nearly impossible to ignore the changes that had been made to him. Every part of his body annoyed him in one way or another now. As a human, he used to sleep on his back, but now that was impossible because of his horns. Once, he tried to wipe his eyes, only to accidentally scratch his own face with his new set of claws. He recalled when he was given a toothbrush and some other basic things for personal hygiene. He had gone to brush his teeth, only to be startled by his new fangs. Now, even sitting down was annoying; everytime he took a seat, he had to be very careful not to accidentally sit on his tail. He was also acutely aware of how strange his new fur felt on him and how he could see the edges of his snout in the center of his vision at nearly all times. The worst part, though, was showering. Fur feels _awful_  after a shower.

Before this, Asriel had often wished that he was taller. His father and mother were both very tall, and compared to them, Asriel was very short. Now that he was taller, the only thing he could think was:  _this is not what I meant._

More than anything though, he thought about Chara. Asriel had always felt it was his duty to protect them. They were never the most stable person, and they often leaned a bit too much on him for support. But when Chara needed him most, when their life was on the line, Asriel had failed. Because of him, they were dead, and there was nothing he could ever do to bring them back.

But he also had other things to deal with. First, there was the lizard-like monster scientist that seemed to be studying him, Alphys. As far as he could tell, she was the one who made the equipment that had turned him from human to monster, and she was also tasked with keeping him alive in his new form. What struck him most about her, though, was just how _nervous_  she seemed around him. She had a near constant stutter, and rarely made eye contact. Any attempts at small talk were short lived. Even Asriel's own attempts at small talk died out after only seconds.

The other monster he had met was Frisk. She appeared to be very similar to Asriel in appearance: tall, with horns, a tail, and a vaguely goat-like face. Strangely enough, she also had surprisingly human-like hair that came down just passed her shoulders. The differences between them were that while Asriel's fur was a bright white, Frisk's fur was tawny brown, and her tail was much longer than Asriel's own. Asriel's horns were also larger, and he was taller, too. He was thankful his transformation left him with such a short tail; there was no telling how annoying a longer one would be.

But the most disturbing thing about her was her eyes. They were a deep red color, almost exactly the same as Chara's. It was unnerving. It was impossible to make eye contact with her without thinking of Chara.

Frisk was the monster that had decided against executing him, and instead decided to transform him into one of their own. Based on her reaction, and the way Alphys had been studying Asriel, he assumed that he was the first person this had ever been done to. Frisk had visited him only once since he was captured, to attach something to his soul to stabilize him. Their conversation had been short, awkward, and uncomfortable. It was clear she was just as confused on how to handle this situation as he was.

There was one more important thing about Frisk; she had been called _princess._ Through a twist of fate, Asriel had gone from never seeing a monster face-to-face before to fighting off several monsters in combat, meeting the princess of all monsters, and then becoming a monster himself. 

But right now, there was only one thing that was actually important to him. Monsters took the souls of humans they killed. He thought back to the day he lost everything, and recalled seeing a few monsters collecting the souls of murdered humans and placing them into containers. Asriel _knew_  that they had taken Chara's soul, too. 

He needed a plan. He needed to free Chara.

He was the son of the man who lead what remained of the human's military. Because of this, he had been trained in many areas; weaponry, melee combat, battle tactics, but most importantly, strategy. He couldn't fight his captors, and in truth, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to hurt anyone, as he couldn't even do it on the battlefied; but maybe, he could find a way to free Chara. It wouldn't be as easy as coming up with a battle plan, but he had to find _something_. He needed to find a way out of the cell; he needed to find out where he was, and how to find Chara

Asriel stood up out of bed and walked to the mirror on the opposite wall. When he walked in front of it, a foreign reflection greeted him.

He couldn't go back to the human side; he would be killed on sight without ever having a chance to talk, and that was only if he could make it through the traps the monsters had set up all over the front. It was likely that he would never see his parents again, and as far as he knew, he was permanently stuck as a monster. Everything truly had been taken away from him. 

But despite all of that, he still had someone depending on him. Chara needed his help. Just like him, Chara was trapped. And even if he would never be free himself, he would do what it takes to set his best friend free. 


	4. Friendship is hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one night, how fancy is that?

 

 

"You want me to what?" asked Frisk, incredulous.

"I want you to try to become friends with the human," her father replied.

After Frisk's first meeting with the human-monster prisoner, she felt that it would be a good idea to meet with her father and explain everything that had happened. As luck would have it, the king happened to be traveling near Greenlake on his way back to the western front, and was able to stop by the very next day.

Of course, when her father arrived, he didn't _just_  want to talk about the war. He had clearly missed his daughter, and wanted to spend time with her. So instead of going to straight to business, he had proposed an alternative; they should cook together. Back in the underground, Frisk's father had often cooked meals for the family, and he had also taught Frisk how to cook some things, too. Now, it was one of the few hobbies they shared, and as a result it was often what they ended up doing during the rare times they were together.They had ultimately decided to bake a cake, for no reasons other than that it was easy and they didn't have time to eat a full meal together. 

Although, it was a bit harder for them to share a cooking space together now. The souls he held within him had changed his physical form to nearly triple of the original size. Instead of the kind, gentle form her father once had, he was a massive beast with three pairs of wings, a long tail, and two pairs of horns. 

Frisk recalled the first time she saw her fathers new form and the terrible fear she felt. Then, she remembered when the king had attacked his own people after being unable to fight the influence of the souls he had absorbed. Had it not been for the quick work of the former royal scientist, W.D. Gaster, monsterkind may have been completely wiped out. Now, her father had to be constantly hooked to a machine designed by Gaster that kept the human souls in check. 

Unfortunately, Gaster was lost when he absorbed a human soul and attempted to use the machine on himself. Apparently, only boss monsters were strong enough to handle the machines effects. And once a human soul was absorbed by a monster, the effect was permanent. No monster since then had ever absorbed a human soul on purpose, and those who accidentally absorbed one all met the same fate.

When Frisk told the king of everything that had happened over the last few days, he was initially skeptical that it would ever lead anywhere; and in truth, the idea of peace still wasn't entirely appealing to him. The only human interaction he'd ever had was when his wife was murdered, and when he went to war. He had seen nothing to indicate that peace would ever be possible between the two species, even if they did undergo a physical change. While he regretted starting the war, and had grown to hate the violent things he had done, ending the war without destroying their enemy seemed impossible. However, his attitude changed when Frisk told him about her first meeting with the transformed human, and how kind he had been despite everything that had happened. What Frisk hadn't expected, however, was for the king to place the responsibility of overseeing the whole project squarely on her shoulders. She had no interest in becoming friends with the prisoner, and something about the idea made her very uncomfortable. 

"That's not going to work. I mean, I'm the reason he lost everything! You realize that, right? There's no way he would ever want to be friends after all that I've done. Any reasonable person would hate me after all of this," she replied, her tail swaying angrily behind her. 

"Well, based on what you told me, he doesn't _seem_  to hate you. Compared to most humans, that's quite an improvement," he said as he rummaged through a drawer trying to find a mixing spoon. "Maybe, being kind in return could eventually make him come to see you as a friend rather than an enemy. Perhaps the transformation even affected his soul, too, and made him more like one of our own."

"Just because he played nice doesn't mean he doesn't hate me," Frisk said.

"That is true, but surely you understand that if we are to find a way to bring peace, we must first find if it is possible for one of to befriend a human... or, ex-human in this case. If we can't be on at least speaking terms with even one transformed human, how can we ever hope to achieve peace between our two species?" her father replied. Frisk turned her head toward the ground, considering the king's words. To say she was skeptical of converting humans into monsters in order to achieve peace would be an understatement. However, her duty was to the kingdom first, her personal opinions second, and she would do what she was ordered to do even if she necessarily didn't like it.

"Frisk, I know you aren't a fan of the idea, but you said it yourself, the fewer people that know about the transformed human, the better. At least for now. I don't want to bring anymore people on board than we already have. And while I agree that it would be better to pass this off to someone else, the only other person we could trust with this responsibility is Dr. Alphys. And we both know that she isn't the best in social situations. And you don't have to be _close_ friends, of course. I think the biggest concern is whether or not the human would ever be able to integrate with monsters." said the king, as he finally pulled out the mixing spoon from the drawer. It was dwarfed by his oversized hand. "Now, would you do the mixing? It can be difficult to be... delicate, at this size," he finished, chuckling as he handed the mixing spoon to Frisk. 

The next few minutes passed without further discussion of Frisk's new responsibility. She knew that there was no dissuading her father, and she didn't want to spend the rest of their time together arguing. Instead, they made small talk, doing their best to avoid matters of the war. Despite everything, she was glad to be able to spend time with her father, even if it was only for an hour or so. 

But all things come to an end eventually. As the cake finished baking, the king had to leave.

"I'm sorry I have to cut this short dear, but I need to be getting back to the western front," he said as he stood up out of his chair. "Be safe, Frisky."

"Ugh, not that nickname again," Frisk replied, doing her best to look annoyed despite her smile. "You be safe too, dad."

He hugged her tightly. That was one nice thing about her father's absolutely monstrous size; when they hugged, she felt like a young girl again. For a moment, she could imagine herself back in the underground, where there was no war, and she could fall asleep every night without worry. As her father pulled away from the hug, she was forced back into real life. With that, he walked out the door, leaving Frisk alone in the kitchen. Sighing, she turned attention back to what they had been baking.

Frisk opened the oven door and looked at the freshly baked cake. If her father wanted her to make friends with the human, maybe the cake would help. After all, humans gave gifts to people they cared about, right?

She still wasn't going to put in the effort to decorate it with frosting, though.

\------------------------------------------

 

The first thing Frisk noticed when she entered Alphys lab was the distinct lack of Alphys. The second thing she noticed was the short skeleton wearing a blue hoodie standing in front of the monitor displaying the prisoners cell. Sans, like Alphys, was a royal scientist, so seeing him in the lab was a common occurrence. However, he had been suspiciously absent from the lab for the past several day.

"heya," said Sans casually, glancing back at Frisk. Frisk walked to his side and joined him in watching the monitor. She was surprised to see the prisoner reading. She hadn't brought him any books. 

"Long time no see, Sans. I was beginning to get worried that you'd overslept on one of your naps," Frisk said teasingly. Sans turned towards her as if to reply, but paused when he saw the cake in Frisk's arms. If he could raise an eyebrow, he would have. 

"i was gonna reply with a witty pun, but you kinda broke my train of thought with that cake," he said.

"It's for the prisoner," said Frisk, doing her best not to let her annoyance at her task show.

"...it has no frosting. it looks like you baked it a bit too long, too. remind me again, when did you start baking cakes for the prisoner?" he asked. 

"Since today. Where have you been lately? It's been days since I've seen you," Frisk asked, attempting to change the topic. She did not want to have to explain her father's orders to Sans.

"with my brother. i just wanted to spend some time with him after all of that nasty business at the battle. i guess that's sorta why i'm here now. i'm trying to figure this kid out," replied Sans. Frisk made a sour face after she realized that he had managed to slip in a pun.

"What do you mean, figure him out?" asked Frisk. In truth, there were several things she was trying to figure out about the prisoner as well, but she wanted to know what specifically Sans was referring to.

A moment of silence stretched out between the two. Suddenly, Sans waved a hand toward the monitor and spoke.

"this... kid had the drop on our royal guards. the dogs hadn't seen him, he had a weapon, he was in imminent danger. any reasonable human would've taken the opportunity to kill them right then and there in his situation. i mean, i don't have any complaints. it's just that i saw part of the fight he was in with the dogs. he wasn't _losing_ , Frisk. it looked like he had the upper hand most of the time, even though he was outnumbered. but he never went on the offensive." He put his hands back into his pockets, his shoulders noticeably drooping a bit. "paps was the one the stopped the fight. if that prisoner had been willing to fight..." he trailed off. "guess i'm just trying to find out why he didn't fight." 

"Well, any theories so far?" asked Frisk.

"none so far. if he's got a game, i don't know what it is yet," he said, finishing with a shrug. If the prisoner did have an ulterior motive for being so merciful, then what could it be? Could he be getting information on the monster kingdom to help the humans? But that didn't make any sense; there was no way he could have known that he would be spared, and even if he did, there would be no way to escape. Even if he _did_  escape, he wouldn't last long on the human side of the border.  

One more question nagged at her; if he wasn't a soldier, then how did he know how to fight?

"Well, good luck with staring at the monitor. I'm gonna go take this cake to the prisoner now." With that, she headed for the cell door. She reached for the button to open it, but paused.

She hated her fathers plan. But even more, she hated how little she truly knew about the prisoner she was supposed to befriend.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she forced a smile onto her face, opened the door, and walked inside.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The prisoner was sitting on the bed, his back supported by a pillow leaned up against the wall. He was reading, but when the door slid open he turned his attention toward his new visitor. He wasn't smiling while he was reading, but as soon as Frisk walked in, the smile drooped just a bit, as if he was trying to hide his discomfort at being around her. Frisk did her best to give him a reassuring smile but it was obvious to both sides that her smile was merely plastered on. Neither one of them were thrilled to see each other, to say the least. 

_This is never going to work_ , thought Frisk bitterly. How would she even start? Does she ask him how he's doing? There was too much potential for him to turn that question into an angry rant. Does she ask him if he needs anything? No, again, the question could backfire. There had to be something she could ask to start a conversation. 

The cake. 

"Hi there, Asriel. I brought you a cake," said Frisk, trying to sound cheery, but it sounded more like a robot trying to approximate what a cheery person sounded like. 

"Uh... thank-" he stopped mid-sentence when he actually laid eyes on the sad excuse for a cake Frisk held in front of him. The distinct lack of frosting and burnt edges around the pan didn't exactly make it look appetizing. "Did you forget the frosting?"

"Well, not all cakes have frosting, you know. I happen to prefer cake this way." That was a lie. A big lie. No one likes cake without frosting, and Frisk knew that well. But maybe, if she said it with enough conviction, the prisoner would buy it.

"Uh, well... thanks." 

He bought it. Probably.

It suddenly occurred to Frisk that the only table in the cell was the nightstand next to the bed, and it was currently occupied by a small stack of books. She looked for anywhere else to place the cake, but the more she looked, the longer she stood in the same place, and the more awkward the situation became. 

"You can... put it on the ground, or something, if you don't want to hold it any longer." Frisk was thankful the prisoner seemed to be a bit better at handling this incredibly awkward situation than she was. She placed the cake on the ground just to the left of the nightstand, then walked in front of the bed again. The whole situation was making her painfully aware of a lack of a chair to sit in. As it was, with him sitting on the bed and her standing in the middle  of the room, a chair would make things just a bit less awkward. 

It was at that moment she noticed that the book in his hands was on the subject of magic. How had a _prisoner_  gotten a book that explained how their greatest advantage in the war worked?

"Give me that book," said Frisk. Any forced pleasantness that had been in her voice was gone, and the prisoner's frown grew even more noticeable. He handed the book over without argument. She knew that taking away his only real source of entertainment was probably not helping her chances at establishing a friendship, but letting him read books on monster magic was a step too far; despite everything, he was a still a human at heart, even if everything else about him was that of a boss monster. 

"Sorry... I just can't risk having you read this. I think you understand why."

"In case I ever escape? I don't really think that's an option anymore, Frisk." He gestured towards himself. "Our military doesn't exactly give monsters the benefit of the doubt. Even if I did manage to escape, I would just get gunned down the second I cross the border." He said it as if it were nothing more than a fact, but anger seeped into the edges of the sentence, and his aura flared with frustration. He wasn't staring at Frisk, but nonetheless it was obvious who his words were directed at. Frisk's shoulders sunk a bit at his words. She knew he was right, but she still didn't like risking him reading the books.

Still... if he was going to eventually integrate into monster society, he would need to know how to use magic. She could find him some books on magic that were a bit less detailed. He would need to learn how to use magic, but he didn't need such a detailed book to do that. 

"I'll get you a book on magic that's less..." 

"Useful?" the prisoner finished for her.

"Yeah."

"... Thanks." 

The silence that followed stretched on as Frisk tried to find a way to continue the conversation without success. Finally, she decided that she had done enough for now and any further attempts at conversation would just come across as forced. She excused herself and started heading for the door. 

But just as she was about to open the door, she thought back to something she noticed in their first conversation and had an idea. It was a bad one, and probably wouldn't work, but she was not about to give up without at least trying _something_. 

"Actually... could I show you something?" 

"I... sure, I guess. I don't really think I have a choice here." The prisoner seemed less than thrilled at having to spend anymore time with Frisk. Frisk, however, ignored his obvious annoyance, and grabbed his brush from the mirror in his "bathroom" (in reality it was little more than a small part of the room that had a privacy curtain attached) and then had a seat on the bed next to Asriel. 

"We have to do something about your fur situation," Frisk said.

"My fur situation?" Asriel replied.

"Yes, your fur situation," Frisk said, laughing. 

"What's so bad about my fur?"

"Well, for starters, it's a mess. You always look like you just got out of bed."

"Well, to be fair, I technically haven't even gotten out bed yet today. I've just been reading. I think I have a pretty good excuse."

"Not a good enough excuse to never learn how to groom yourself properly. Now, are you going to keep making excuses or are you ready to learn?"

"Sure? I mean, how hard can it be, right?" Asriel said.

Frisk laughed at his ignorance of the difficulty of proper grooming. She didn't, however, expect to see the prisoner laugh in return. For the first time since they'd met, they were both smiling. They were shaky, nervous, untrusting smiles, but they were smiles nonetheless.

"Well, I'll show you how, then you try." Frisk said.

It was far from a friendship, but Frisk considered it a start. 


	5. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was out of town all day and had no computer access. Anyways, here's chapter

Frisk wasn't entirely certain when the idea came to her, but it was almost exactly the kind of thing she needed for her little project with the prisoner.

It had been a little over three weeks since the first awkward attempt at friendship had been made, and although things were still incredibly awkward (and most likely would be for a long, long time), Frisk found herself becoming much more comfortable around the former human. Conversation seemed to flow... well, not quite naturally, but _more_  naturally than it had when they had first started talking, so that was good. In fact, the more they talked, the more Frisk found herself actually _wanting_ to talk with the prisoner. It was an odd feeling she had trouble placing the origin of, but it didn't bother her much. Most likely, it was just a way for her to get out of the mountains of paperwork she had been digging through slowly for what felt like months. Even now, as she filled out yet more papers, she felt the urge to talk to him.

But the problem with talking to Asriel was that although they had plenty of time to talk, they actually had very little to _do_ together. Most of the time, the closest thing they had to a shared activity together was solving one of Papyrus's puzzles. There was also one time when Frisk brought a regular 500 piece puzzle she had found laying in a closet in her castle, but it had ended with the nearly-completed puzzle being tossed gracefully across the room and into the garbage can when Frisk realized that it was missing the last two pieces. It had been the only time she ever lost her temper in front of the prisoner, and she knew now that it was best to avoid puzzles that involve several pieces for both of their sanity's sake.

But that endeavor hadn't been completely fruitless. While she was rummaging around in the closet for the puzzle, she had found an old piece of her past that might give them something to do together. 

She tore herself away from the mound of papers at her desk that somehow seemed to grow larger every time she looked at them, and exited her room. The closet she needed to go to was only a few doors down the hallway. Although living in a castle meant that she had to a lot more walking than she would have to do in a regular house, she always liked living in it. It was, in a way, charming, and it reminded her of the movies she watched when she was younger. 

The closet door swung open with a loud creak, indicative of just how few times she had actually visited this closet. It didn't take much digging to find what she was looking for: an old TV, along with a VCR player. Both were relics from her childhood, and for years she forgot she had even held onto them. But now that she knew that they were still around, she was thankful because it was actually something that both she and Asriel could do _together,_ as friends.

The trip to the lab was a short one, and Frisk was thankful that no one seemed to be home at the moment; it meant that she would not have to stop and talk with anyone. She came here with a purpose, and she was determined to see it through as soon as possible. She walked straight to the cell door and opened it without knocking. She was greeted by the sight of Asriel laying on the recently-added couch in the middle of the room, working on what looked to be a cross word puzzle, with a distinct look of boredom on his face. As soon as Frisk walked in, however, his green eyes snapped to her and he smiled, just a little bit. It's not the kind of smile that a friend gives to another friend, but it's a smile that seemed to say, " _at least I won't be bored now,"_ and Frisk considered that an achievement, albeit a small one. 

The grooming lessons Frisk had given him were obviously having a huge effect on his personal hygiene. His fur was no longer the unkempt mess that it had been, but was now a smooth, clean coat of snow white fluff that reflected the light in a way that would make many natural-born monsters jealous (of course, being held in a cell 24/7 didn't really give him much of a chance to get his fur dirty, so this was expected). His small mane had been cleaned up, and now stood up in a loose ruffle on the top of his head, just between his horns. Even his horns seemed to be a bit shinier and more well taken care of than in the past, although Frisk hadn't given him any tips on horn care. 

It startled Frisk that the first thing she thought when seeing him was that not only did he not look bad, he actually looked quite good _._

"Howdy, Frisk. Come to bring me lunch?" Asriel says. 

"It's 5 PM, Asriel. I think you missed lunch by a few hours."  she's smiling as she says the words, until a thought crosses her mind. "Wait... did Alphys not bring anything by?"

"It's 5 already? Golly, today flew by. And, no, I didn't get any lunch today. I took a nap earlier, so maybe Alphys just didn't want to wake me up. I'm hungry now, though."

"Well, I brought some snacks with me, so that should help for now. But first, I brought you something." Frisk grabbed her cell phone from her pocket and opened one of it's dimensional boxes, then pulled out the VCR player, proudly showing off the gift to the prisoner.

He didn't seem thrilled, only confused.

"What is that?" Asriel asked. He had already seen Frisk use dimensional boxes multiple times in the past, so she knew that he was talking about the VCR player.

"It's... a VCR player." Frisk paused, waiting for a response. "Do you... do you seriously not know what that is?"

"No, I don't actually."

"Well, you've watched a movie before, right? It plays movies. You know, when you hook it up to a TV." Asriel paused for a moment, as if pondering this new development. 

"Did you bring a TV?"

"I- yes, Asriel, I brought a _TV_ , I'm not stupid." Frisk walked over to a nearby shelf that had been set in front of the couch and placed the VCR player on top of it. Next, she took the TV from her inventory and waved it in front of Asriel as if to say, _see, not stupid,_  before hooking it up to the VCR player. Finally, she opened her cellphone's  _other_ dimensional box, this one full of movies. Asriel looked on with curiosity.

"Okay, so my... um, Dad, gave me this VCR player when we still lived in the underground, along with some movies that had fallen with it." She immediately regretted having mentioned her dad. She had never explicitly told the prisoner her political position, but he had managed to figure it out. Knowing she was daughter of the king would probably be a sore subject, and she tried to avoid bringing it up whenever possible. " I'm not sure if you've seen any of them, since you're pretty young compared to me, but I guess we can just look through them until we find something interesting," said Frisk. Right as she pulled out the first rectangular plastic tape from the dimensional box, Asriel perked up.

"Wait, _that's_ what a VCR plays? Those are so old! Wait... Frisk, how old are  _you?"_   

"I'm 58." Asriel's eyes widened. "That's actually pretty young, for a boss monster. I think it's close to... 22, in human years? Since we're pretty much immortal, 60 years isn't a whole lot of time to us. You're probably immortal now, too." Asriel winced at Frisk's words, unsure of what to think of the new development. It suddenly occurred to Frisk that the prisoner hadn't actually known that boss monsters were basically immortal. She quickly changed the subject. "So, movies!"

The next several minutes were spent looking at the various VHS tapes they had to rummage through. While Frisk removed movies from her inventory, Asriel sat on the couch looking over each movie Frisk offered, occasionally adding a comment about whether or not it was good. Despite his young age, he seemed to know about the movies better than Frisk did. None of the movies really seemed to stand out to the two of them, until finally Frisk removed a VHS tape with a familiar cover and Asriel's eyes lit up. 

"You have Star Wars?!" he cried, his voice full of excitement. Immediately after he said that, however, his smile morphed into a frown. "It's episode two. Why do you only have episode two. " His disappointment could be felt in the air.

"To be honest I don't remember most of these movies. I didn't even know I had it." She wondered how she hadn't watched it when she was younger; it had obviously been in her collection, since it ended up in her inventory, yet she couldn't remember anything about the film. She must have just missed it. "So... I take it that you don't want to watch this?"

"Let's watch it. Fair warning though: it isn't all that great. Just... treat some parts of it like a comedy and it'll be a lot more enjoyable."

Relieved to have finally found a movie, Frisk didn't protest and popped the tape into the VCR player. She went to turn the lights in the cell down a bit, but hesitated. That wouldn't be weird, would it? She wanted to- well,  _needed_ to be friends with the prisoner somehow, but the last thing she wanted was to unintentionally set up a "date" between them. But the more she thought about, the more she realized just how eerily close this situation was to a date. They were watching a movie, sitting on the same couch, alone, potentially in the dark. Frisk had even brought snacks to share. The only thing that would be missing is cuddling. That'd be awful. 

Of course, there was the fact that Frisk was responsible for the death of the entire town Asriel had been in and she had unintentionally transformed him into a goat monster, so that pretty quickly killed the comparison. It wasn't a real friendship anyways. She flicked off the switched and sat on the couch next to Asriel as he pressed play on the main menu.

Frisk was only able to watch the first few minutes of it with any real attention spent on it, after which she started dozing off while occasionally listening to the comments Asriel made. Sometimes he would talk about the actors, sometimes he would talk about how they did a specific shot with the camera, and sometimes he would make fun of the especially poorly-written lines that came up from time to time. 

She started paying a bit more attention to the movie whenever an implied romance started budding between two characters. She paid attention not because she was interested in the characters, but rather because the whole thing was unintentionally hilarious. Asriel's comments made on the scenes were also pretty funny. One line in particular that talked about sand, along with Asriel's comments about the scene had the two monsters almost crying with laughter. Frisk probably wouldn't have been able to watch the whole movie alone, but with Asriel's comments and jokes, it became surprisingly easy to do so.

A bit later in the movie, one of the characters slaughtered an entire desert community. Frisk went rigid, and Asriel stared straight ahead, doing everything in his power to avoid eye contact. After that subplot ended, however, they both seemed to relax, and she once again started dozing off.

A while later, she woke up. 

"Uh... Frisk?" 

The first thing she saw was a black screen in front of her. She could feel that her head was leaning against something warm. She sat up slowly, trying to regain her bearings on the environment. She stretched, then suddenly realized that she had accidentally fallen asleep on Asriel's shoulder. She was mortified, because she realized that, unintentionally, their time together had met all the criteria for a date. 

"How long was I out?!" Frisk asked, smoothing down the now ruffled up fur on her cheek.

"You fell asleep right before the final battle, so quite a while. Your head fell onto my shoulder right as they started fighting Count Dooku."

_Who the hell is count Dooku_ , Frisk thought for a moment before remembering the whole thing didn't matter. 

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Frisk almost shouted at him as she switched the lights back on. Not only did she sleep on his shoulder through a long fight scene, but she also slept through the entirety of the credits. 

"I... you looked tired, and I thought you might need some sleep. I tried to get you off of my shoulder but I couldn't find a way to do it without waking you up. I mean, if you're worried about it being weird, it's not! When me and Chara used to watch movies, Chara would alwa-" He paused and broke eye contact with Frisk. He looked down toward the ground, as if pondering something. "Hmm," was all he said after that. 

"Just wake me up next time, OK? And... let's just pretend this last part didn't happen. It's not like I had any control over it," said Frisk. She was standing in the middle of the room now, both of them struggling to find a way to continue the conversation.

After a while, the door to cell opened, startling both of them. Dr. Alphys walked in, hunched over and looking more timid than Frisk had ever seen her, with two cups of instant noodles with a bag of chisps lying next to it on a tray in her hands. Most people didn't actually realize that Alphys didn't need to be hunched over at all times, she could stand up straight anytime she wanted. However, her timid disposition combined with her role in the war made her seem to always be trying to shrink into herself, and make as little of an impression on other people as possible. Hence, the hunch.

"H-hi Frisk, Asriel. I, uh... I brought you dinner!" She was doing her best to force a smile, but she would have been more convincing had she drawn a smile onto herself with a sharpie. "S-sorry, I only had one bag of chisps, so you'll have to sha-"

"It's OK Alphys, I was just leaving anyways. I've left the rest of the movies with you, Asriel, and Alphys is supposed to bring you some more books tomorrow. Let me know if you need anything else." Frisk walked out the door quickly, not even bothering to give a proper goodbye. Alphys set the food down and followed quickly behind her, but Frisk ignored it; she just wanted to get back to her castle and go to sleep somewhere that wasn't her prisoner's shoulder.

How could that have happened? When the movie started, Frisk was sitting too far away for her head to reach his shoulder, and she knew for a fact that Asriel had been in the exact same spot the entire movie. Had she moved closer to him throughout the movie without even realizing it? She would never, ever do something like that on purpose, yet it seemed to be the only possible explanation. What did that mean? Did it really mean anything? 

Of course it didn't mean anything. Asriel still probably hated Frisk, and Frisk still hated humans, for the most part. That was what kept her head clear; she wasn't getting close to him because she wanted to, but because it was her duty. It kept the lines she couldn't cross clear, and easy to avoid. Tonight had been nothing but a mistake, and she was sure that the prisoner knew that too.

And he had compared the whole situation to what he used to do with someone named Chara. Asriel had occasionally mentioned Chara from time to time, but it was always brief, and he seemed to shut down immediately after talking about them. Frisk didn't know if they were someone who was killed when Asriel's town was raided, but the last thing she needed was him comparing her to whoever this Chara was.

And even worse, what if they were romantically involved? With the way Asriel shut down almost immediately after trying to reassure Frisk that the situation was not awkward, it wouldn't surprise her. And what did it mean if Asriel was comparing Frisk to someone they used to be romantically involved with? She wasn't sure, but she didn't want to think about to too hard.

It was at that moment she noticed Sans. He was standing in front of the monitor that overlooked the cell. His hands were stuffed into his pockets as usual,but his smile was wider than normal.

"you two have fun?" His voice sounded as if he had just told the punchline to a joke.

"Not a word, Sans." Frisk felt a sudden urge to spike a fireball directly into Sans' skull.

"about what? you've goat to be bit more specific." Impossibly, his smile grew just a bit wider.

"Sans, I am really, _really_  not in the mood right now. What happened in there is something I would really like to forget about."

Alphys looked back and forth between the two of them, oblivious to what had happened in the cell. Sans decided to clear things up for her.

"sorry, alph, I shouldn't keep you in the dark on this. frisk here fell asleep on her prince's shoulder."

Alphys made a loud choking noise as her face turned bright red. Frisk on the other hand, only made a low growling sound, as the air in the lab rose a few degrees in temperature. 

"Sans, that was _extremely_  inappropriate. He is not my... prince, he is a _prisoner._ There is nothing going on between us, and there never will be." She was furious, and it was taking everything in her not to grab something and throw it across the room. More specifically, it took everything in her to not grab and throw _him._

"you sure, princess? you seem to be trying awfully hard to make friends with a test subject. sure seems like there's something weird going between you two." His smile had drooped just a bit, but his voice remained level and calm. "and frankly, frisk; that scares the hell outta me."

"Well maybe, Sans," she practically spat his name out, "that's because I was given a direct order by the king _himself_ to befriend the human to see if integration is even possible. And maybe, if you had bothered to give me even an _ounce_ of credit, you would know that I'm not so stupid as to actually take our friendship seriously. You aren't nearly as good at judging character as you like to think, Sans," she finished. Sans seemed surprised to learn that she was given orders, but he didn't back down.

"well, that does... change things, just a little. but still, frisk, be careful. i'm not quite sure i believe that you are able to fake a friendship like that. i'm not sure anyone is able to fake a friendship like that, really." He scratched his non-existent nose. "sorry i gave you such a hard time about it. i just don't want you getting hurt, that's all."

"We both know Asriel isn't going to hurt anyone, Sans. He's not like that." Frisk was surprised she had actually defended the prisoner, but she meant what she said.

"is that his name? huh, i was really trying to avoid learning that. oh well. and besides, just because he hasn't hurt anybody yet, doesn't mean he won't in the future."

There was a pause in the conversation. Frisk did her best best to calm down from her outbrust, while Sans looked at the monitor intently. Alphys, however, had retreated to reading diagrams on a computer on the far side of the room, as if trying to avoid further discussion. 

"L-look, Sans. I fell _asleep_  on him. If he wanted to hurt me, or even kill me, he had every chance in the world to do just that. I don't think he's going hurt anyone," Frisk said, trying to reassure him that whatever was happening was not putting her or her people in danger.

"do you think he might be able to... integrate with us someday? i mean, that's a while a way, i know that, but still. do you think this could actually work? turning humans into monsters?" 

"I..." Frisk frowned. "I don't know yet, Sans. I _think_ that Asriel might be able to, but he isn't like most humans. Even whenever we were killing his people, he refused to hurt anyone. Even when he had the chance to hurt me, he didn't, and I'm the one responsible for all the awful things that happened to him. But that doesn't mean it will work for other humans."

Sans looked down slightly and nodded, pondering what he had just been told. 

"And Sans?"

"yeah princess?"

"If you ever refer to Asriel as my prince ever again, I will torch you. Understood?"

"heh, understood, princess."

"And you know how I feel about you calling me princess." said Frisk, as she started walking towards the lab's exit. She was tired of dealing with all of this, and more than anything wanted to go to sleep. Before she could get out the door, however, Alphys called her over.

"Frisk, can I... can I t-talk to you for a second?" Alphys was sweating, and her stutter was noticeably worse than usual. Frisk didn't know what she wanted, but she knew that it probably wasn't anything good. 

"What is it Alphys?" She said with a sigh, the last of her patience almost gone. She was exhausted.

"W-well, I was going o-over the readings from Asriel's soul extractor over the past few days, and I f-found something bad, I think. His soul seems to be losing energy, at a much faster rate than the d-drainer is supposed to extract it." 

That didn't sound good. 

"Alphys... what does that mean?"

"Frisk... I think Asriel is dying."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not gonna lie guys i didnt really proofread this one


	6. Bad ideas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I have written, which means no more daily updates. I'll just update when I can, which should be at least once a week, maybe more.

"Frisk... I think Asriel is dying." The words hit Frisk like a truck, and she felt her heart drop to her stomach.

"What... what makes you say that, Alphys?" This can't happen. Not after all of the progress they've made. They couldn't lose their chance at peace, even if it was a slim one.

"Well, you s-see, his vitals are consistent with a monster that is going through the first stages of f-falling down." Alphys was looking over a notebook with diagrams and information about Asriel's vitals, but she seemed at a loss. Her hands were shaking, and her voice was quivering. "I can't think of anything else that would cause his vitals to fall like that. He's dying, Frisk."

"Well then how do we stop it? There must be something, Alphys!" Frisk's exhaustion was not helping in this situation.

"I... I don't know if there is a way, Frisk. I'm doing everything I can think of!"

"Can you remove the extractor?" Frisk asked.

"It's unsafe to do that now, at least until I figure out a way to reduce his soul's energy output permanently."

"Well can we slow the speed it's extracting at?"

"It's set perfectly, Frisk! I w-wouldn't make a mistake like that! It's something else, and I don't know what."

The next several minutes were spent in the same manner; Frisk would offer a suggestion, Alphys would explain why that wouldn't work, then the whole cycle would begin again. Frisk kept getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that there was nothing they could do.

She was scared. It was the first time in a long time that she might actually lose one of her... well, not friends, but acquaintances at least. If she were to be honest, she couldn't tell whether she was scared of losing him because it would mean losing their chance at peace, if she had grown to actually care about him, or a mixture of both of those reasons.

Sans had wandered over when he heard the commotion, but he mostly just leaned back against the table with his eyes closed, almost as if he were falling asleep. Occasionally he would glance at Alphys or Frisk, but for the most part he did nothing. Frisk and Alphys on the other hand were no closer to finding a solution.

"do you really think this whole thing is worth getting so worked up over?" Sans asked, casually.

"Not funny, Sans," said Frisk tersely. If he wasn't going to take this seriously, he didn't need to be here.

"it wasn't a joke, frisk. if there's nothing we can do, there's nothing we can do. it's not like we can't try this on another human in the future, right?"

Frisk couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sans had always been a bit... calloused, towards the war, but for him to so casually talk about giving up on someone's life like that was disturbing.

"We've made a lot of progress with him, Sans. Besides, we don't even know if this is something all humans can do, or if it's just something special about Asriel."

"well then, we'll need more lab rats in the future, anyways, huh? we're trying to make plans for integration and all that but you don't even know if this will work on other humans. seems like kind of an oversight, don'tcha think? doesn't really matter if we lose just one." Sans was now sitting on the table, hands in his pockets, with a smug look on his face.

Frisk honestly hadn't considered the idea that Asriel might be special among humans until now. He certainly acted different from other humans she'd seen, but that didn't necessarily mean that he would be so unique as to be able to transform into a monster. But it was still possible that the extractor wouldn't work on other humans, and it needed to be tested more.

But more than anything, Sans was frustrating Frisk. His logic was sound, but he was so... cold. He talked as if Asriel wasn't an actual person, and was just a lab rat. He talked as if he was nothing more than an experiment.

She thought back to the day he was transformed, then his subsequent capture, imprisonment, and experimentation. Maybe Sans did have a point. They  _had_ reduced Asriel from a person to a test; he was little more than a trial run to the kingdom of monsters. Frisk felt a little sick thinking about it.

She was no fan of humans, but it still felt wrong. 

"Look, Sans, if you don't have anything helpful to say, then stay out of this."

Sans sighed dramatically. "alright, you got me. i got an idea. alph, what do human souls run on?"

Alphys was busy looking over readings on her computer screen while furiously typing away at something. "Determination," was all she said, distractedly.

"and what does the extractor drain again?" Sans asked.

"Uh, d-determination."

"so then, what would a human soul run on without any determination?"

Alphys suddenly stopped typing.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't think of that!" Alphys looked at Frisk now. "This whole time, I've been thinking about Asriel's soul as if it were a human soul, but I didn't even think of the fact that it isn't powered by determination anymore! There's something else powering it!"

"Alphys, get to the point, what is powering his soul now and how does that help us?!" Frisk said, growing inceasingly tired with the cryptic nature of her two friends words. She was in no mood for puzzles.

"I have to think of his soul like a monsters soul, and monster's souls need hope, Frisk! It's hope! We know what happens to monsters who are kept in captivity for too long, don't we?" Alphys said, excited.

"They fall down..."

"And why would Asriel be any different now? I mean, he's practically a full monster! Of course he needs hope!"

"So if we want to keep him alive, we have to let him out?" Frisk said. That wasn't going to work... right?

"yeah, no offense alph, but that's not gonna work." said Sans, as if confirming the thought.

"He hasn't hurt anyone."

The words came out of Frisk's mouth without any conscious thought put into it. Both Sans and Frisk looked taken aback at the fact that Frisk was actually supporting letting him out. Sans was so surprised in fact, that for once, he didn't have a comeback. 

"He hasn't hurt anyone," Frisk continued. "And I don't see that changing anytime soon. If we can keep him alive, we have to try."

"no, we don't have to do anything. in case you forgot, let me remind you: he. is. our. enemy. he isn't your friend, or boyfriend, or whatever the hell is going on between you two. despite everything, he is still our enemy, and him being a bit fluffier doesn't change anything."

That was the last straw.

"Sans, I told you once to cut it out. Now I'm going to give you one chance to get the hell out of this lab, or there will be serious repercussions. Am I clear? I am not putting up with your games."

"i'm not playing games, ki- frisk. i don't know what's going on between you two exactly, but it's not good. it's moved beyond the orders your dad gave you, and into something personal."

The pinpricks of light that normally rested in Sans' eyesockets suddenly dissipated. The air grew cold, as Sans' aura filled the room.

"and if you let him out of that cell with all the baggage between you two, frisk, you won't be focused. and it will be a bad time for all of us."

Frisk was too angry to be shaken by his outburst, and responded by taking a step forward, now only inches in front of him. She stared down at the short skeleton, her teeth barred, throat growling.

"Last chance Sans. You can leave now, or I'll strip your position and make you get out. Most people wouldn't be so generous in my position. Now I'm going to ask you one more time. Am. I. Clear?" Whatever weight Sans' aura had was overpowered by Frisk's crushing fury.

The skeleton stood still for a moment, staring her down. Then finally, he tore away from her gaze.

"crystal."

It was the only thing he said as he turned around and walked out the door. There was no final phrase, no last saying before he left for the night; he knew he had pushed way too far this time, and more importantly, he knew that Frisk could, and would make good on her threat. Frisk slumped down into a chair, exhausted, but relieved to have finally gotten rid of him.

Alphys was clearly disturbed by what had just happened.

"A-are you really going to let him out, after all of that? I mean, S-Sans sounded really serious, Frisk."

"Yeah, I'm not losing this chance. After everything we've been through, I'm not losing him. I don't think I can handle trying to make friends with a prisoner again." She paused for a moment. "It's gonna be a bit more dangerous to let him out though. Without Sans' gravity magic, if he tries to run we'll have a hard time containing him. But quite frankly, I don't know how much longer I can put up with Sans."

"C-can't you force him to help?" Alphys stuttered out.

Frisk sighed.

"Look, he's a jerk, but he's still a friend. It's clear that he thinks this is a terrible idea, and if I want to stay friends with him I can't force him on this issue. And it's not like he's the only person who can keep him contained, right? We could get a royal guard regiment, or... actually, that wouldn't work. It would draw way too much attention." Eventually, Frisk planned on letting the whole town know that the rumors of a human turned monster would be true, but not yet; there were still too many uncertainties, too many unanswered questions, and the last thing they needed was for the hope of monsterkind to backfire spectacularly.

"Undyne!" Alphys shouted suddenly. Frisk just stared.

"What about Undyne?" Frisk asked, perplexed.

"Undyne is coming in from the front tonight! She's one of the only monsters strong enough to restrain a fully grown human, and she could easily handle Asriel!" She was excited now, both from the fact that Undyne was coming to visit and the fact that she'd had such a great idea. "Besides, Asriel won't hurt anybody, so we don't have to worry about Undyne fighting him!"

"That... that could work! Good thinking, Alph!"

"So it's decided then?" Alphys asked.

"It's decided then. Tomorrow, we let him out of his cell with me, you, and Undyne keeping watch. Be ready."

As Frisk turned around and started walking toward the door, she took one last glance at the monitor. The white boss monster was laying on his bed, working on another puzzle.

The war was not stopping anytime soon. She had lost too many soldiers, too many friends, and the last thing she wanted was to lose more. She couldn't let monsterkinds one chance at peace disappear. She refused to let that happen.


	7. NIce weather today!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Would you look at that, my first weekly chapter update, and it's three days late! Woo hoo, I'm on a roll!
> 
> On a more serious note, I grossly underestimated the time it would take to write this chapter. On the brightside, I've planned for the next week and the same issue should not happen twice.

 

 

 

Frisk woke up early (sadly) the next morning to plan Asriel's day out. It wasn't exactly something she was looking forward to, but at the very least giving the prisoner a field trip definitely beat filling out more paperwork, and that counts for something, she decided. All of the planning was going smoothly- she carefully chose places that would be very likely to have very few monsters visiting, and the time of day they were going also meant that most monsters would be asleep or waking up during their little outing. All in all, the whole plan was finally starting to seem like not such a bad idea after all.

Undyne was, of course, less than thrilled about babysitting when she received Frisk's call, but she was a soldier- she followed orders, unlike some other people Frisk knew. Alphys also didn't seem too thrilled about the whole thing, but for entirely different reasons. She seemed to lighten up when Frisk told her that she didn't have to wear her official royal scientist coat, though, so that was good.

Finally, the planning was done, and they had gathered up everything they needed. Frisk would bring some homemade food along with some clothes for Asriel, since prisoners outfit wouldn't cut it in public., Undyne would bring tea, and Alphys would bring the basket to hold it all. It was going to be a pretty simple day- first there would be a trip to the park, then a picnic, then... well, they would most likely just stay in the park, unless she came up with a really, _really_  good idea on the spot.

The walk from the castle to the lab was entirely uneventful, and Frisk was still a bit out of it from waking up so early. Undyne had arrived to the lab before Frisk, and was staring at the monitor overlooking the cell when Frisk walked in. Her face was stoic, and the only greeting she gave Frisk was a nod of recognition.

"Hi, Undyne. Ready for a fun day?" said Frisk sarcastically, as she wiped the sleepiness out of her eyes.

"Ha, of course I am!" she exclaimed, her expression brightening.

"Well, I wish I could say the same. I barely slept," said Frisk, giving a weak, unconvincing smile in return.

"That's why you always start the day by being active! You can't be tired if you're training!" Undyne slapped Frisk on the back painfully, causing Frisk to stumble forward just a bit. Frisk didn't say anything in return, and seemed to be trying to regain her balance through the fog in her mind.

"Anyways..." Undyne continued," I'm having a hard time believing that this... prisoner used to actually be a human. If you asked me, I would never be able to tell if I hadn't been there to see it happen." Frisk looked towards the monitor at the white boss monster on screen. He had clearly just woken up; he was sitting up in bed, and the fur on one side of his face was smushed down from his pillow. _Funny,_ thought Frisk, _glad to see I'm not the only one._

"So... what's he like?" Undyne asked.

"Hmm?" Frisk said absentmindedly as she began to unloaded her homemade meals from her inventory on a table in the middle of the room so they could be put in Alphys basket when she arrived.

"I mean, what is he like? Is he angry at us? Has he tried to hurt anyone? Should I be expecting a fight?"

Frisk actually laughed at the last question, until she remembered that he had, in fact, fought monsters before. He hadn't _killed_ , yes, but it was perfectly reasonable to assume that a prisoner would fight if there was a chance of freedom.

After knowing Asriel for a few weeks now, however... she was confident he wouldn't try anything crazy. And if there _was_  a fight, she and Undyne could take him. Probably.

"I don't we have to worry about any daring escape attempts or fights. He hasn't even so much as said anything mean toward me." She paused in thought for a moment. She hadn't really considered that strange until now. "He doesn't really seem angry, he just seems... sad, I guess? All the time. He tries to hide it, I think. He doesn't talk all that much, and when he does it usually doesn't last long. You can just... _feel_ the sadness in his aura. And that's why we're doing this today, so that hopefully we can keep him from kicking the bucket because of it." They couldn't lose this chance at peace, right? He was too important, too valuable to the kingdom to lose. And in all honesty, if she could spare Asriel from becoming another causality of the war, she would.

Undyne, surprisingly, stayed quiet for a moment. Her aura was completely neutral.

"Will this actually work?"

"What do you mean by that, Undyne?"

"Frisk, I'm not dumb. We both know the war isn't going in our favor. What I mean is," Undyne paused and turned from the screen to meet Frisk's own gaze," is this it? Will this end the war?"

_God,_ thought Frisk, _I hope so._ But she didn't say that.

"Yes. This will end the war." 

Undyne nodded in acknowledgment before turning back to the monitor. 

"Well," Undyne finally spoke out, "at least we captured a human that shouldn't be too much trouble."

At that moment, Alphys came bursting through the door, wearing a bright pink shirt with one of the most painfully garish illustrations of an anime girl (with paws???) on the front. Her pants were, thankfully, just regular jeans, so their eyes were spared from what could have been a much worse situation. Undyne snickered at the sight, while Frisk just rolled her eyes, smiling.

"S-sorry I'm late! I couldn't decide whether to wear my blue shirt or pink shirt." Alphys said, trying to catch her breath.

"Relax Alph, you look great! Besides, Frisk here was late too." Undyne said, her smile stretching nearly from ear to ear.

"Thanks for tattling on me." Frisk said flatly. "Alphys, your shirt should be a crime." She said it without any inflection, but her smile told Alphys that she was just messing with her.

"Haha, you think this is bad? You should have seen the blue shirt."

"Well, anyways, now that we're all here, I guess the last thing left is to get the prisoner. Alphys, do you have the picnic basket?"

"In my inventory! I also brought these." She took four bracelets from her inventory and held them out to Frisk. "They're shackles. Sort of. They were originally made for an MTT show but... anyways, you just put them on the prisoners arms and legs, and you can restrain him using a trigger word."

Frisk grabbed the bracelets and held one up to inspect it. "So what's the trigger word?" 

"Uh.... got.... g-got legs."

Frisk's eyes moved from the bracelet in her hand to Alphys. Undyne turned away and stared extra hard at the monitor in an attempt hide her growing smirk.

"Got... legs?" asked Frisk, as Alphys began to sweat profusely.

"...Yeah. Don't say it by accident."

Frisk rubbed the bridge of her nose and let out a deep breath. 

"Okay. Got... legs. Got it," said Frisk as she begrudgingly grabbed the bracelets from Alphys. "While I get the prisoner prepped, you start loading everything I brought into your basket, okay?

"Okay! Wait- everything you brought?"

"Yea- oh my god, Alphys, is your basket filled with instant noodles?"

Alphys started sweating even more, somehow.

"Well... it's n-not _filled_ , but it does have instant noodles in it, so-"

"Get them out, put my homemade food in. I'm going to make sure the prisoner eats something edible for once today," she said. She walked toward the cell door, bracelets and clothes in hand.

* * *

 

The prisoner was obviously still waking up, as his eyes were half closed and he was grooming himself with slow, sluggish movements. He acknowledgd Frisk with a small wave when she walked in, but the poor guy was obviously just trying to remember how to be alive, so he wasn't really in the mood for greetings.

"Tired?" Frisk asked.

"Mm-hmm," the prisoner groaned out response. Frisk laughed at just how poorly he was doing at acting like a functional person.

"Well, wake up! You're going outside today!"

At that, the prisoners hand that was busy grooming his fur froze, and his eyes grew wide. He stood still for a moment, while his sleep-filled brain processed what he had just heard.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah, actually. I know it's a bit... sudden to push it on you like this, but it was kind of a last minute thing, so... surprise?"

"Golly, count me in! I mean, a bit of a heads up would have been nice, but it's fine, really! Just let me finish getting ready!" The sudden excitement had made any semblance of drowsiness disappear, as he stood up and rushed over to his bathroom corner to finish getting ready for the day.

"Also, I brought some clothes for you to change into **,** so wear those. We actually need you to look like a regular person if you're gonna go outside." Frisk said. Asriel had already progressed to brushing his teeth, wasting no time whatsoever. Frisk realized for the first time just how desperate he must be just to see the sun. It had been well over a month now.

"I'll give you some privacy. Just knock on the door when you're ready," said Frisk as she walked outside.

A few minutes and a couple of knocks on the door later, and the field trip had officially begun.

* * *

The clothes Frisk had brought for Asriel fit him surprisingly well, despite the fact that she got them from just choosing the largest, most oversized clothes she had in her closet. He ended up wearing a green hoodie with loose black pants. Frisk laughed at the fact that he had to wear a hoodie; they were useless with horns.

Immediately after the door to the outside world was opened, Asriel groaned and held up his hand to shield his eyes from the bright sun. The weather was perfect for an outing like this; cloudless, and a near perfect temperature for a furred monster. After a few moments of letting his eyes adjust, Asriel lowered his hand and took a deep breath. He looked up at the deep blue sky, squinting just slightly from the intense light, before lowering his gaze and looking at the landscape in front of him. 

"I missed this. I... I missed this a lot," he said, as he wiped away a tear from eye. "Golly, the sun. I forgot how bright it was."

"Yeah," was all Frisk said in reply. Frisk felt... something. Guilt? Regret? It didn't matter in the end, but she wondered what exactly the feeling meant. Seeing someone cry over just seeing the sun was difficult enough; no one should have to go through circumstances like that. But to know that those circumstances were almost entirely caused by her... it didn't exactly make her feel good. 

"So what is this place?" asked Asriel, snapping Frisk's attention back to the present. 

"Greenlake. It's built pretty close to the border between the two sides, and since I make pretty frequent trips back to the front, it was the best place to settle down for a bit."

"It's nice. It's colorful." He paused for a moment and surveyed some of the more garish buildings of the town. "Very colorful. It's very... different from home." 

Frisk almost asked him what his home was like, but thankfully caught herself before she spoke. 

"Monsters cities are always more colorful than your boring human towns! I don't know how you guys could live in depressing towns like that!" said Undyne.

"It's a tactical advantage," said Asriel. Undyne looked intently at the young boss monster, "I mean, it keeps our homes hidden from your... cannons."

His choice of word brought pause to Frisk, however. She didn't exactly have experience talking to humans, but she'd seen movies. She knew for sure that the words _tactical advantage_  weren't exactly commonplace in day to day language for humans. It didn't _necessarily_ mean anything, but it was interesting. In truth, despite know Asriel for weeks now, she knew very little of his past and the things he did before his accidental transformation.

Alphys also reacted to what he said, but rather than being worried about his choice of words, she seemed to shrink away at his mention of the cannons. It was no secret to Frisk that Alphys wasn't exactly a fan of the war, and hearing directly the kind of effects the cannons she designed had was no doubt a terrible feeling. Not only that, but Asriel had been captured and transformed by another one of Alphys' inventions. If Alphys' sins had a physical embodiment, Asriel was dangerously close to being it. 

Undyne just seemed to shut up when Asriel revealed why human towns were so dull. Frisk could feel Undyne's aura, but just barely; it was completely neutral. Frisk recognized the feeling. It was the same one she felt after a battle. 

As for Asriel, his aura sat somewhere between happiness and sadness. He had no doubt missed the outdoors, and the sun was already doing a lot to improve his mood. But it was also obvious that he was trying to force down painful memories. 

His aura was muddy. Asriel never seemed to feel one definitive emotion, but rather seemed to be stuck between several. 

"Does it take long to get all of this set up? Border towns have to be set up quickly. Does magic help with making everything colorful?" Asriel asked.

_That_  was certainly suspicious. How did he know about setting up border towns? Frisk knew that humans couldn't build as quickly as monsters due to their lack of magic, but for him to know the basics about building border settlements was disturbing. There was more to Asriel than she originally thought. 

She thought back to the day he was captured and thought about the fact that he held off multiple royal guards at once. She wondered how she didn't realize it sooner. 

"Yeah, magic helps a lot. The colors also help keep troops happy," replied Frisk. In the distance, on the other side of the park, a few civilians wondered about, enjoying the early morning just like them.  She would have to make sure that they didn't get too close; monsters were very social, and would more than likely try to talk to Asriel if they saw that he was new in town. Or worse, soldiers on leave might see him and try to question him. The last thing they needed on this trip was for him to have painful memories dug up.

"There aren't very many people out today, huh? Seems like a good day to be out, with weather like this." While Asriel may have been perfectly comfortable with the weather, it was actually rather cold for non-furry monsters; he just didn't realize how much of an effect his fur had on his temperature. While many monsters would come out anyways despite the cold, most were still asleep or getting ready for the day.

"It's just early," said Frisk, pulling out her phone to check the time. "It's only 7:30 AM, after all.You were barely awake when I came into your room, anyways."

"I've never really been much of a morning person," said Asriel, laughing. "My mom... she would usually wake me up when I tried to sleep in." His smile turned bittersweet at the mention of his mother. "I... I bet she'd be glad to see I've still been waking up early, despite everything." He wiped at his eyes. "She'd probably be a bit less proud at how much I've been sleeping during the day, but..." he sniffled as the tears started coming faster.

Alphys looked alarmed at the mention of naps, though. She gave Frisk a knowing glare; he had been in the process of falling down for who knows how long, and the signs were right in front of both them the whole time. Somehow, they never connected his naps with his health; they just both assumed he was bored.

"S-sorry, sorry... I just... it's hard," Asriel sputtered out as he attempted to regain his composure.

Frisk looked away from Alphys, to Undyne. Her face seemed to show that she was... sad? Maybe she was pitying Asriel? It would be very unlikely; Undyne was not at all fond of humans after all the years of war she had endured. The nicest Frisk had ever seen Undyne be toward a human was neutral. But right now... well, she didn't seem to be neutral. 

Asriel stopped walking, and turned to look at Frisk.

"I'm... I'm never gonna see her again, huh? I'm just gonna be stuck here, aren't I?" He paused to wipe his eyes. "And even if I did somehow see her again... she wouldn't even know it's me. She wouldn't recognize that I'm her son." His tone began to shift from sad to angry. "I'd end up with a bullet through me before I even got a chance to talk. 

Frisk opened her mouth, but no words came out; she was at a loss for words. She knew he was right; she knew that they had messed up his life in more ways than he ever thought possible. 

"... Let me ask you a question, Frisk."

"Listen here, punk! You don't as-"

"I'll ask whatever I want to ask!" interrupted Asriel with what sounded like a growl. He grimaced at the sound. Undyne was so taken aback that it took a moment for her to recover. 

"Why, Frisk? Why me? Why do this to me?!" He said with a raised voice, as tears continued to stream down his face.

"Asriel, I- I didn't..." Frisk was at a loss. She couldn't tell him that his transformation was accidental, but she needed to give him _something_. Taking him out was supposed to be helping improve his mood; right now, it seemed like he was only dwelling on the bad things they had done to him. They _had_ done a lot of bad things to him after all. Maybe, in a way... they deserved it.

Who was Frisk kidding? Of course they deserved it. They had taken everything from him, even his own body. 

"Why didn't..." he paused to swallow. "You should have just killed me with the others. You should have just killed me with Chara. This wasn't mercy, Frisk. This _wasn't_  mercy." 

The three of them stood in stunned silence. Undyne's jaw had tensed, and her fists were clenched. Alphys was near tears, and seemed to desperately be trying to shrink away and make herself disappear. Frisk was standing perfectly still, her mouth open just slightly, as if words were trying to escape her mouth but were trapped in place.

Asriel looked back and forth between the three of them, waiting for some reply, any reply from his captors. After what felt like nearly a minute, he gave up.

"Whatever... ha, I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. It happened. I can't change it." He looked toward the ground and shrugged. "Nice weather today. May as well enjoy it while I can." With that, he turned away and started walking further into the park. The other three followed him from a distance.

"Frisk... you said he wasn't angry with us." said Undyne, snapping Frisk out of her own head.

"I didn't think he was."

She had been wrong.


	8. Good food, terrible friends.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cuz screw weekly chapter updates amirite
> 
> okay but seriously XCOM 2: War of the Chosen just dropped and I've taken a break from life to play that. With that out of the way, updates should finally be getting on track.
> 
> Also I had to edit this chapter like three times cuz I kept making typos on the chapter title lol

Asriel hadn't meant to become angry like he did, but now that it happened, he almost felt... relieved? All the anger, the grief, the hate that he'd been holding back... letting some of it loose was almost cathartic. Of course, he didn't let go of all of his resentment. He wasn't even really sure that was possible. But still, it felt nice for the brief relief it provided.

Despite that, he still regretted it. Not because he felt bad, but because it would be a bit harder for them to believe that he wanted to be friends with them after an outburst like that. But without getting close to them, without more chances outside of his cell, he had no possible chance of finding what was left of Chara. He needed to know where he was, where Chara was, how he could escape, and how to free Chara. He needed either a map, or a landmark, or someone who could show him where to go, but without at least a little bit of trust from the others, he had very little chance of getting any of that.

Frisk's apparent eagerness to befriend him had been off-putting at first, but it quickly turned itself into an opportunity. He just had to watch his words, act as friendly as possible, and wait for the right time to ask about Chara, or at least where the souls might be kept. But it was hard to be friendly toward the person who was at least partially responsible for his best friend's death. He cared about Chara more than anyone... A world without Chara wasn't much of a world worth living in.

He looked behind him for a brief moment as they all walked through the park together. Frisk's eyes were downcast, and she had a pensive, saddened look on her face.

Despite everything, he didn't hate her. She was, in a way, responsible for Chara's death, yes. But she was following orders. Although he didn't have to like it, he at the very least could understand and respect that. After all, he came from a position of authority himself. Not quite on the same level as Frisk, but enough to know that orders are orders. She didn't seem to hate him either; although he did have a hunch that her attempts at friendship were also orders from her superiors, she didn't really have to do everything she had done so far for him. Baking him a cake (a crappy one, but a cake nonetheless), bringing him puzzles, cooking him food, getting him a TV...

...Falling asleep on his shoulder.

Chara used to do that when they watched movies together. If Chara didn't like the movie they were watching, or they were bored, or they just needed some rest, they would always fall asleep on Asriel's shoulder like it was no big deal. And now Frisk was doing that. Frisk, who had the same deep red eyes, who had a similar demeanor, the same sarcastic attitude... she wasn't Chara. But he couldn't help but be afraid that he might one day not be able to separate the two in his head. How disgusting was that? Replacing Chara with the person who was basically their own murderer?

He was so lost in his own thoughts, he didn't even notice Frisk trying to get his attention until he felt a tug on his hood.

"Hey, wait up. This is a good spot for the picnic," she said, doing her best to feign a convincing smile. It wasn't convincing.

When his gaze fell on her eyes, he felt a brief pang of guilt mixed with disgust. Whether it was directed at himself, or Frisk, or both, he couldn't tell. It must have carried over into his aura, because as soon as he felt those emotions, Frisk noticeably stepped back and whatever attempt at a smile she had been making immediately disappeared.

"We'll, um... we'll get it set up. You just... sit tight, in the meantime."

The area they had chosen was still on the far side of the park, away from any other monsters that might try to come say hello. The spot was actually rather nice; the grass felt pleasant on his bare feet, and there was a fairly large tree that would give the picnic some decent shade. Asriel sat with his back against the tree, trying to take his mind off of Chara. Without thinking about it, he started stroking one of his ears. It was a habit he picked up quickly after his transformation, and although it helped with stress, it still felt strange. It was just another reminder of his transformation. He didn't like it, but he needed to get used to it regardless. There was no turning back.

But still... a goat? Of all things?

He tried to lean his back against the trees trunk and rest his eyes for a moment, only for his horns to clang painfully against it. With his attempt at a nap foiled, he turned his attention to the three monsters setting up the picnic. Frisk was busy setting up a checkered blanket straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, while Alphys had started pulling out food from the basket she brought. Both of them occasionally glanced toward him. Undyne was pretending to help, but it was obvious that her main focus was on him. She was watching his every move, and with her full set of armor donned, she was intimidating.

Despite the weather, however, her armor seemed to be causing her to overheat. She was sweating, a lot.

Not that he would try anything regardless of whether or not she were here, of course. Not until he found a way to free Chara. But even then, even if he didn't have to free Chara, could he hurt them anyways? He couldn't even kill when he was on the battlefield. There were so, so many openings, and it would probably only take a single blow with intent to kill any one of the monsters that had been attacking him. And yet, he Just. Couldn't. Do it. Was something wrong with him?

He didn't regret showing mercy. But he wasn't entirely sure that feeling was a good thing. And he wasn't sure it was a good thing he found himself unable to think of hurting his captors now, either. He should be furious. He should be doing everything he can to get revenge. Yet, here he was, about to have a picnic with his enemy, as if he wasn't in a monster town, with his monster captors, in a monster body...

None of it was right. But he saw no way out that didnt involve leaving a trail of bodies behind him. Or dust, in this case.

He looked at the distant side of the park at a group of monsters gathered together. Although monsters came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, he could clearly make out a few monster children playing tag together. He couldn't kill. He wasn't like... his captors.

Once again, Frisk was the one who snapped him out of his thoughts, this time by snapping.

"Hey, picnics ready! Come sit with us." said Frisk, once again trying to maintain an air of cheeriness. Begrudgingly, Asriel stood up, walked over to the picnic blanket, and sat back down.

"Thanks for setting this up for me Frisk." Asriel said, trying to get things back on track from his earlier outburst. Frisk looked surprised at his words, but tried to hide it.

"Well... I figured you needed some time outside. Me and Alphys both. Undyne just kind of came along for the ride."

"Oh, I see. Undyne, is that your casual wear? It seems comfy." Said Asriel with a smirk. Frisk seemed to realize just how flimsy her lie was at that moment. "You don't have to lie, Frisk," Asriel continued, "I know she's here to guard me from doing anything stupid. I'm not an idiot."

"He's got a point though!" said Undyne. "This armor is super uncomfortable for a picnic. And it's too dang HOT!"

"It's actually pretty col-" Alphys was cut off by Undyne's loud voice.

"You try living in Waterfall for 20 years, then you can tell me what's cold! Besides, you lived in Hotland! Everywhere is cold compared to Hotland!" Undyne stood up, as her intensity increased. "You know what? SCREW IT! I can take this little wimp even without my armor!" Suddenly, she began tearing the pieces of her armor off one by one, each piece flying off in a different direction at hazardous speeds. Asriel narrowly avoided a shoulder piece smacking him in the nose, Frisk let out a bleat as an iron boot landed inches from her tail, and Alphys took a gauntlet to the face because she was too distracted by the undressing fish to think about moving.

When all was said and done, Undyne stood in the middle of the picnic blanket, a proud look on her face, posing heroically as if she did something courageous. Underneath her armor, she'd been wearing a tank top, athletic pants, and boots.

Alphys lay on the picnic blanket, unable to move. Whether it was from the shock of getting clocked in the face by a gaunlet, or getting clocked in the head by Undyne suddenly undressing from her armor in front of her, Asriel wasn't sure. But her obvious crush and refusal to act on it was amusing, at least.

And just like that, Undyne plopped down back into her seat on the blanket as if nothing major had happened. Alphys still lay there like a slug. Frisk's mouth hung open just slightly, unable to form words. Asriel... he started laughing. After all of the awful things he'd been through, there was something so bizarre and hilarious about seeing his captors acting so strangely that he couldn't help but laugh. The harder he tried to contain his laughter, the more seemed to come out. Eventually, Alphys was able to snap out of her state of mind, and started laughing with him, albeit quietly, and nervously. Frisk attempted to conceal her snickering, but was doing a poor job of it. Asriel's laughter came to a head when he noticed the imprint Undyne's gauntlet had left on the lizard's face, and he leaned back on his hands to catch his breath as his laughter slowed to a stop.

When all was said and done, all four of the monsters were sharing grins. Asriel realized that this should be worrying, laughing alongside his captors, but... it didn't matter. He needed to laugh. He needed to be sad. He needed to be happy, if just for a moment. He needed to let things out. His trip outside was as much a reprieve from his cell as it was from his hesitation to let his emotions out. So many of the things he had been feeling for over a month now were coming out, and it felt good. He realized that his emotions had been up and down and sideways more in the past half hour than most people's emotions would be in months, but that was ok. He had a lot to get over.

It felt like healing. He wasn't sure if he really was healing, because despite everything, he was still stuck as monster, in a monster town, with his monster captors; but it felt like healing, and that counted for something, dang it.

"Golly," Asriel said, finally catching his breath and wiping away a few laughter-induced tears. "I needed this. I didn't realize how much I needed this."

"Heh. Glad I could help." said Frisk as she ran a hand down a loose strand of hair, still chuckling quietly from everything that had happened. She was looking down, but Asriel could still tell she was still smiling.

A moment of silence passed between the group as they all settled down. For a moment, it was enough to just admire the pretty scenery of the park. Eventually, Frisk grabbed the basket and spoke up.

"Well, let's get this picnic started, shall we? I figured having a break from instant foods would also be nice, so I cooked spaghetti for all of us. I also brought some fruits and vegetables, and some chocolate for desert. Hopefully that doesn't melt. Undyne also made us all some tea-"

"Golden Flower Tea!" chimed Undyne.

"... yup. I'll just put the plates out and let the rest of you grab what you want."

"I brought the basket, you know," said Alphys, wanting to make her contribution known.

"It's... a nice looking basket," said Asriel after a moment of silence. The rest of the group had started filling their plates with food. Asriel, however, was more concerned with the tea, and poured himself a glass before getting food. As he took a sip, he was surprised just how familiar the taste was. It tasted just like the tea his father used to make. Just like the tea he used to share with Chara. It tasted like home.

He couldn't go back. But just for a moment, he let himself relax, and enjoy his tea like he used to, before everything went wrong.


	9. Picnics don't have to be boring.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i am so freaking tired
> 
> here have a fight scene, and more divergence from SD canon
> 
> i'm gonna go sleep now, please comment if i made any typos because i am way too tired to proofread

 

 

Frisk hated this.

Just a few feet away from her sat a white boss monster, who just moments ago had been laughing along with Frisk's friends at Undyne's intense antics. Now, he was sitting back, drinking golden flower tea and doing his best to keep a smile on his face. To an outside observer, it was just a normal picnic between friends. And at the beginning of their trip outside, Frisk had almost stupidly let herself believe that it might actually be just that. Despite all the times she had reminded herself that something like that was pretty much impossible, a part of her still hoped she was getting through to him.

But then, Asriel had snapped. For the first time since his capture, he had actually gotten angry, and let out some of the things he had no doubt been holding in since his capture. Everything he said was true. He was stuck as a monster. According to Alphys, it was likely that too much of his physical matter had been converted in his transformation for him to turn back. She was surprised and relieved to learn that his parents were still alive, but it was true that he would more than likely never see his parents again, unless the human-monster conversion project was so successful that they were converted to monsters by the war's end. Even then, his parents wouldn't even recognize him; and if he somehow escaped captivity before the project was finished, they'd most likely shoot him before he got a chance to even talk.

Somehow, that made everything had happened to him more... real. Frisk had seen troops die on the front, but never close friends. She never had a chance to stay in any one place for too long since she had to command her armies, and she had very few things to call her own... she couldn't relate to Asriel's loss simply because she hadn't had any of those things over the years. But the thought of looking her father in the eye and being treated like a stranger...

What had she done?

The fact that he had calmed down so quickly afterward made it even worse. Now that she knew how he really felt towards her, it was hard to talk to him when he was being so stupidly nice. Less than half an hour after his rant, he had thanked Frisk for setting up the picnic for him, as if she wasn't the one who was holding him captive in a town that was foreign to him, in a body that was foreign to him, surrounded by people that weren't even a member of his own species (well, former species). Yet, he had thanked her regardless of all the awful things she had done to him. 

She was hoping that today would be something they could both enjoy, despite the things that had happened in the past. Obviously, she was wrong, and it was becoming clear just how woefully underprepared she was for Asriel's situation. She was quite possibly the first monster that had to attempt to become friends with a human being, and in the middle of a war no less. Even though it felt like she had been making progress, today had been little more than a reminder of the the fact that she had no idea what she was doing.

It was her duty to find a way to make a friendship between them work. Her father had given her a direct order, and far, far too much hope was riding on the idea of converting humans to monsters. Until now, that was really all it had been; a mission. He was just a task to her up until this point; or, at least, that's what she had wanted to believe. His kind demeanor hadn't helped either; if anything, it had just lowered her guard for when he finally was ready to let out what he was feeling. 

"I'm not sure you're able to fake a friendship like this." Sans' words. She hated just how right he had been. She had let this task get too personal; she had gotten too invested, too close, and now she was paying the price. She cared. And he never would.

Another thought struck her. How many humans were like Asriel? Kind, caring, merciful...

How many like him had she executed without so much as a second thought?

Suddenly, the plate of spaghetti sitting in front of her didn't seem so appealing. She put her fork down and tried to get out of her own head for a few moments. 

Alphys and Undyne were chattering away at each other, while Frisk and Asriel stayed silent. Much like Frisk, Asriel hadn't so much as touched his plate yet, instead opting to only sip the tea Undyne had brought with her. He had a neutral expression on his face, and his aura was a mess of different emotions that Frisk couldn't make heads or tails of. Frisk tried to mask the guilt from seeping into her aura, but she doubted that she was doing a very good job. And even if she did manage to mask her aura, one look at her face would let people know that something was eating at her.

"S-So Asriel, w-what do you think of the t-tea?" asked Alphys, as her eyes shifted back and forth from her spaghetti plate to Asriel.

"Huh? Oh. It's good," he replied absentmindedly. His head was clearly somewhere else.

"Well that's... good," replied Alphys. She clearly had no idea where to take the conversation next. The picnic became silent for a moment.

"It's good. I mean, it reminds me of home. My father used to make golden flower tea every morning right before breakfast. It was like a tradition for us to share a cup in the morning. I... wasn't sure I'd ever be able to have it again." A mirthless laugh escaped his mouth, and his hand started fidgeting with one of his ears. "I just kind of assumed you would want to keep me locked up in that cage until... well. I don't know." He paused for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts. "I don't know."

"Asriel... we d-don't want to keep you l-locked up forever. We're t-trying to make it possible for monsters and humans to live together," replied Alphys without once making eye contact. "You could even fully i-integrate as a monster someday... i-if you w-wanted, I mean..." 

Asriel's only reaction was a slight twitch of his mouth. The next few moments passed in silence, until he laid down onto his back. 

"That's just a different kind of cage, Alphys," he finally replied. "The only difference is that it's bigger. I still can't see my parents. I still can't see my old friends. It's still a cage, just a bigger one." 

Alphys didn't know to reply to that, and neither did Frisk. Undyne, for the most part, seemed to be picking up on the tense atmosphere, and had been surprisingly quiet the entire trip. Fortunately, she was the one to finally break the silence.

"You know what? All this talk is boring me to tears! With all the energy we're getting from this meal, we should be training! We should be running miles!" Suddenly, she shot to her feet and raised both fists in the air. "NGAAH! In fact, I'm gonna do that right now!" She leaned forward, about to break into a sprint to god knows where, when Frisk interrupted her passionate speech.

"Uh, Undyne?" She motioned to the prisoner. "We kinda need you here."

"UGHHHH, Frisk, why do you have to be such a killjoy?" she sulked. "How about me and you do a sparring match over by the lake instead? It's been forever since the last time we fought!" she pointed toward the lake the town received it's name from.

Frisk considered it. On one hand, fighting would be a great distraction from the way she was feeling, but on the other hand, it had been a long time since she fought in real close quarters combat. Most of her duties on the battlefield were commanding her troops, not fighting in the frontlines. Not only that, but Asriel might try something if she wasn't paying attention.

No, thought Frisk, he won't try anything. He's not like that."Actually... yeah," she said, surprising herself. "Let's do it. It's been too long." She stood up, and before he realized what was going on, grabbed Asriel's arm and dragged him along with her. He stumbled to his feet in an effort to keep up. He wasn't going to try anything, that she was sure of; she still didn't want Asriel being left alone with Alphys though.

"Why am I coming?" Asriel asked, confused by Frisk and the fact that Undyne had somehow already sprinted all the way to the edge of the lake.

"Because it's better than being sad and laying on picnic blanket." replied Frisk without turning around.

Finally, they arrived at the edge of the lake, and Frisk let go of Asriel's arm. Undyne was already fully stretched out by the time they arrived, and was now bouncing in place to keep herself loose. Frisk turned around, stretched her legs a bit, then summoned a fireball into her hand experimentally. It danced between her fingers, and with her other hand she conjured a magic shield for a bit of extra warm up.

"So are we gonna do this thing or not?" Undyne said.

"Oh, we're doing this. You ready to lose?" said Frisk in response.

"HA! Me? Lose? You're dreaming, Frisk! I'll even go easy on you since you've been out of the game for so long!"

"Suit yourself. First person to get hit loses," said Frisk, as she threw a fireball at Undyne. And with that, the fight had begun.

____________________________________________

Though it was obvious in hindsight, Asriel never actually realized that Frisk was a trained fighter. Somehow, the fact that mnster royalty, even the kind that led armies, would actually be trained in combat.

But watching Frisk, it was not just apparent that she was trained, it was apparent just how well trained she was. Her movements were fast, hard to predict, and her magic attacks hit with force that Asriel had never seen come from a monster before. Although Asriel had seen fire-based attacks come from monsters before, Frisk's were on another level entirely. She alternated between throwing balls of fire in complex patterns, sending out waves of fire that were incredibly wide and nearly impossible to dodge, and launching incredibly fast, concentrated lances of fire. When in close range combat, she could conjure a shield that was useful for both defense and offense. Even Undyne, who led the "Royal Guard" (whatever that was), had trouble keeping up.

Still, Undyne was fast too. Although her magic spears didn't pack the same punch as Frisk's attacks, she made up for it with sheer volume. For every fireball Frisk could throw, Undyne could throw an entire cluster of spears, and her attacks were relentless. However, unlike Frisk's fireballs, they traveled in straight trajectories, meaning that Frisk could dodge most of her attacks, and destroy whatever spears got too close with a well timed shield bash. Though Frisk's attacks were getting close to hitting, she was generally able to stay out of the way and block any attacks that got too close.

Both of them, however, outmatched almost any human fighter Asriel had sparred with when it came to speed and the creativity of the attacks. There were very few fighters back home that could keep up with Asriel in a one on one fight, but against these two, he stood little chance of winning without some sort of advantage to press.

All in all, the fight was going in Frisk's favor, until suddenly, Frisk was surrounded by a green aura, and her feet were locked in place.

"Okay, this ones new. Green magic?" said Frisk, struggling against whatever magic bond was holding her back.

"I KNOW, RIGHT?! I was still learning it the last time we fought, but now I finally mastered it!" Suddenly, spears appeared all around Frisk. "Dodge this!" The spears launched straight toward Frisk in accordance with Undyne's hand movements, and Frisk countered by conjuring two shields, one in each hand, and using them to block the spears as they came in.

Undyne had a clever strategy, all things considered. But she had one fatal flaw that both Frisk and Asriel seemed to notice at almost the same time: she had patterns. Although the spears moved quickly, if Frisk could survive long enough to learn the patterns, she could easily counter Undyne's attacks.

All the while, Asriel was doing the same thing. If he did happen to find a way to escape and save Chara, he needed to know how to beat Undyne and Frisk at least. While Undyne was good, her fighting style was too predictable; she was either launching barrages of spears, or locking her target in place and attacking with set patterns, but never both. Occasionally, she would throw a yellow spear that would wrap around the target and attack from behind, but after Frisk was almost caught off guard the first time it appeared, she was able to easily block them in the future. They were dangerous, but still predictable. Magic had it's limits, apparently.

Frisk, on the other hand, was much more unpredictable. Although she lacked the sheer volume of attacks that made Undyne threatening, her patterns were much more complex and hard to dodge, and she had a greater diversity of magic attacks at her disposal. She was lacking in neither offense nor defense, and as a result finding an effective strategy for taking her down would be tough. Still, there were holes in her attacks here and there; in certain patterns, he saw paths he could take to get in close for a melee attack. Her shield's effectiveness was also limited to what she could block with her hands, so if he could attack fast enough, she wouldn't have time to block.

He couldn't kill them, but maybe he didn't have to in order to escape. Maybe he just needed to disable them, if that was even possible for monsters. If he didn't have killing intent, could his attacks hurt them? According to what he had been reading, the more determined one is to fight, the more damage they do to monsters. But does that mean without the will to kill, that a monster can't be killed? Can a monster be murdered by accident?It was a bridge he'd have to cross when he got to it. For now, he needed to focus on memorizing Undyne and Frisk's attacks and combat styles, and come up with a way to counter the-

"WOWIE, WHAT A DAZZLING DISPLAY OF COMBAT PROWESS!" said a loud voice behind Asriel, uncomfortably close to his ears. Asriel jumped, and felt the fur on the back of his neck stand up. Frisk and Undyne's fighting immediately paused, and the green aura disappeared from around Frisk.

"OH, I AM SO SORRY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO STARTLE YOU! YOU MUST BE A NEW FRIEND OF FRISK'S! BECAUSE IF YOU WEREN'T NEW, I WOULD HAVE ALREADY MET YOU! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?"

Asriel finally turned around, only to find the smiling (?) skull of a skeleton monster wearing what looked like Papier-mâché, along with an orange scarf. Asriel recognized the skeleton monster; it was the same monster that spared his life the day he was transformed. He was holding out a gloved hand, obviously offering a handshake. Asriel stared at it with a confused expression.

"Uhh... I'm, uh, Asriel." He offered a hand in return, and the skeleton monster shook with an enthusiasm that threatened to dislocate Asriel's shoulder. Behind the skeleton monster, he could see Alphys talking on the phone nervously. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but her expression showed that whatever it was she talking about, it was serious.

"WELL IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU ASRIEL! AND HELLO TO YOU TOO, FRISK!" The skeleton monster released Asriel's hand and waved at Frisk, who had now appeared at Asriel's side. She glared at Asriel; even without her saying a word, he knew that if he laid a hand on the skeleton monster, she would make sure he regretted IT.

"Papyrus, what are you doing out here? Why aren't you with Sans?" Frisk asked, obviously trying to draw his attention away from Asriel.

"HE SLEPT IN! AND ME, BEING THE PROACTIVE SKELETON THAT I AM, HAD TO COME OUT AND MAKE THE MOST OF SUCH A NICE DAY! IT WAS THEN THAT I SAW YOUR PICNIC AND DECIDED TO COME SAY HELLO. VERY NICE FIGHTING BY THE WAY! YOUR ATTACKS ARE DAZZLING!"

"Well, maybe you should go check on him, and make sure he's awake? You said it yourself, you shouldn't miss a day like this!" said Frisk.

"no need for that. i'm already up." said a voice from behind Asriel. He turned around, coming face to face with a much shorter skeleton monster, wearing a blue hoodie and pink slippers. When did he get here?

"Sans?!" Frisk asked, surprised.

"sorry 'bout showing up unannounced. heard there was a picnic." He said towards Frisk, while looking at Asriel. His eye sockets were completely black, and Asriel could feel a new, strong, magical force in the air. "sorry i'm late."


	10. Short Walk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I bet you're wondering why this chapter took so long, huh? Well, I got a second job. Navigating two jobs, college, friends, and this is actually really difficult schedule-wise. Fortunately, as I become more acclimated to my new schedule, the easier it'll be to get regular updates out.
> 
> I'm also very unhappy with the overall quality of this chapter, but it's been nearly three weeks since an update; sometimes, ladies and gents, you just gotta take the L and phone it in.
> 
> OH OH OH and last but CERTAINLY not least: this silly little AAU got fanart from none other than Blackrazorbill! See here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/197399731985580033/363424594654265344/image.png and here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/197399731985580033/363437513983000588/image.png

Asriel recognized the new skeleton. He was wearing the same jacket, the same shorts, and even the same slippers as the day of the battle. It was the same skeleton that had stopped his execution. The same one who's words convinced Frisk to transform him, rather than kill him. The same skeleton that had suggested using him as an experiment.

His clawed hands curled into tight fists. Seeing Undyne again had been intimidating. But this time, something else was building alongside the fear. Maybe anger. Maybe determination. Maybe both. Whatever it was, it was quickly drowing whatever fear he had been feeling.

"who's this, frisk? a new friend?" said Sans, feigning surprise. He was obviously doing it to deceive the other skeleton, who seemed to be related to him somehow. "nice to meet'cha. i'm sans. sans the skeleton." His smile never faltered. His black eye sockets now contained small points of light inside, and by watching them, Asriel could tell that he kept looking back and forth between him and Papyrus.

"Uh, yes! This is Asriel. He's a new friend of mine from... the capital." Said Frisk as she ran her hands through her hair nervously.

"WOWIE, YOU'RE FROM THE CAPITAL ASRIEL? TELL ME, WHA-"

"PAPYRUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" yelled Undyne, who ran up suddenly, a massive smile seemingly taking up over half of her face. She threw her arms around him in a hug, and Papyrus instantly tensed up.

"UNDYNE, WAIT, PLEASE DON'T..." his voice was suddenly cut off as Undyne lifted him off the ground and slammed him back down in a suplex.

"NEVER LET YOUR GUARD DOWN, PAPS!" yelled Undyne as she victoriously pumped a fist in the air, before helping him up. She reminded Asriel of the more aggressive soldiers he met in military training back home. Except she was slightly less annoying, somehow.

"SORRY UNDYNE, I WAS JUST EXCITED ABOUT MEETING ASRIEL! SO, WHERE WERE WE BEF-"

"Actually, Papyrus, can help me over here for a second? You can ask him whatever you feel like in just a second, okay?" said Frisk, grabbing Papyrus' arm before he could respond and leading him over to the picnic area. He replied, loudly, to Frisk, but Asriel was too distracted to hear what he said. His eyes were completely focused on Sans. Undyne was standing behind Asriel, a short distance away. She hadn't said anything, but had obviously been waiting for him to make a move.

The three of them waited a moment for Frisk and Papyrus to get out of hearing distance. Finally, Sans spoke.

"we only have a minute or two before those two come back, so let's just get to the point. i'm sans. sans the skeleton. papyrus is my brother. there are very few things that i won't do for my brother. if you try anything, anything, you'll be dead where you stand. capiche?"

Undyne spoke up. "Sans, you can't kill him! He's more than just a prisoner, he's our ke-"

"i mean it. i don't care what you or frisk say. i will not let him hurt paps." Sans' eye sockets had gone completely black again. Undyne's muscles tensed, and her hand flexed slightly, as if preparing to conjure one of her spears. Sans' hands never left his pockets; yet, somehow, Asriel could tell that he was just as prepared for combat as Undyne was.

"I can't let you do that Sans. If you try to hurt him, I wi-"

"Will you two idiots shut up?!" Asriel snapped out at them, fangs barred. He wanted to yell, but managed to subdue his voice just enough to prevent Papyrus and Frisk from hearing his outburst. "I'm not going to try anything. You both saw what happened at the battle. I didn't. hurt. anyone. I'm not going to hurt the one person who has shown me anything resembling kindness. That would be stupid. That would be wrong. So why don't you cut it out with the threats already?"

"wrong? heh, a human with a conscience, how nice is that?" Sans said sarcastically.

"Don't pretend like you have one." Asriel snapped back.

"well, you're still alive, aren't you? that's more than i can say for a lot of my friends."

"That's more than I can say about a lot of my friends, too. Besides, this..." he gestured to his transformed body, "isn't exactly an improvement over being dead."

Sans didn't say anything in return, but instead just stared at him, as if in thought. Asriel stared back. Both of them broke their gaze at the same time. The three monsters stood in slience for a few moments after that, until Papyrus and Frisk returned, with a picnic basket in hand and Alphys by their side.

"Alright, well. Papyrus... wants to get to know Asriel. So. That's good." Frisk said. Apparently, she had trouble saying no to the tall skeleton.

"WE CAN ALL HAVE A HANGOUT AT ME AND SANS' HOUSE. IT'S THE PERFECT FRIENDSHIP ACTIVITY FOR GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER! WE CAN DO PUZZLES, OR HAVE A COOKING LESSON, OR... WELL, I HAVEN'T THOUGHT OF MANY MORE ACTIVITIES, BUT I'M SURE I CAN COME UP WITH MORE!" said Papyrus, beaming at Asriel.

"house is a bit messy right now, don't you think paps? not exactly a prime spot for a hangout." said Sans, obviously trying to shut down any ideas of hangouts. "it'd be kinda rude to bring guests over to such a mess."

"WELL MAYBE IF YOU PICKED UP AFTER YOURSELF, SANS, WE WOULDN'T HAVE SUCH A MESSY HOUSE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Papyrus stomped his foot as he finished the sentence for emphasis. "BLAST! YOU DO HAVE A POINT THOUGH. THERE MUST BE SOME OTHER PLACE WE CAN HANG OUT, THEN! IT IS NOT ABOUT THE LOCATION, BUT THE HEART BEHIND IT! ...I THINK. AS LONG AS IT'S SOME PLACE WE CAN ALL ENJOY, THEN IT WILL BE A SUCCESSFUL HANGOUT"

"Well, then let's use MINE instead! We could watch that awesome new anime Alphys told me about, too!!" shouted Undyne, but it was obvious she feigning her confidence at the moment by the way she eyed Frisk when she made her suggestion. Immediately, all five faces swiveled directly towards hers. Papyrus was beaming, Frisk looked nervous, Asriel was massaging his ears after Papyrus' and Undyne's unusual volume, Alphys was sweating even more than usual and trying to rub a spaghetti stain out of her shirt, and Sans... Asriel wasn't sure how to read the expression of a skeleton monster, but he could at least tell that it wasn't an expression that carried any gratitude with it.

"Uh, U-Undyne, that's a bit explicit f-for-" Alphys stuttered out, before being cut off by Papyrus.

"IT'S SETTLED THEN! WE WILL HAVE A HANGOUT AT UNDYNE'S HOUSE!" said Papyrus enthusiastically. He immediately turned and started walking quickly in a particular direction, presumably towards Undyne's house.

As soon as his back was turned, Frisk and Sans eyed each other. Frisk looked worried, while Sans shook his head, as if disappointed by something. Asriel started moving to follow the taller skeleton, though it was no use trying to keep up; despite only walking, Papyrus was traveling at nearly the speed of a running human. Undyne almost ran after him, before realizing that she did, in fact, have a prisoner to guard. She fell back, staying close to Asriel, but she didn't seem nervous or tense. Frisk and Sans stayed a few steps behind the rest of them. Alphys stayed even further back, tugging at the end of her shirt.

Papyrus was... interesting. He was definitely better than the others, but Asriel was still unsure exactly what to think of him. He was loud and enthusiastic, but also friendly and merciful. Unlike his captors, that mercy didn't come with any conditions. Papyrus had spared him out of kindness, not because he wanted him as some sort of experiment.

And even though he was loud, he was also oddly refreshing. It was nice being talked to like a normal person, rather than a prisoner. And while being treated as a normal monster was different from being treated as a regular human, he would take what he can get. He assumed it would be a long time till he got another chance to leave his cell, so complaining over details was not exactly high on his list of things to do.

But maybe... he would be allowed to leave his cell permanently someday? Maybe he could completely integrate into monster society? The cities weren't bad, at least. They were definitely more visually interesting than human towns, but they were still occupied with monsters. And if he did leave his cell, where exactly would he live? Would he have to live near his captors? He couldn't imagine them allowing him to move far away from Frisk at least, since she seemed to be the one tasked with handling him. He wouldn't grow old now, though. Surely they couldn't keep him in one place forever, right?

Immortality. It was equally scary and interesting thought. He could see so much that he would never be able to see in his human lifespan but... if humanity lost...

If the monsters won, everyone he had ever known and loved would die. He would be alive, but could he live with himself after all that? And if he did manage to adjust to that new life... well, the thought of that happening was not a happy one. It made him sick to his stomach.

But if humans won, then he would die for sure, along with everyone he had met on the monster side so far. He... didn't know how to feel about that. He didn't want to die, but he didn't necessarily want to live like this either. Monsters had been his enemy, but now that he was one... where did that leave him? Was he an enemy to humanity now? Was he an ally to monsters now? He seemed to be stuck in the middle, and not entirely sure whether or not he wanted to pick a side if he even could.

Alternatively, if the monster transformation project did work, if humanity was entirely converted to monsters, it wouldn't really bring peace. Even with their human forms gone, humans would never stop fighting.

He didn't want humans to die, or be transformed like him. But after seeing a monster town, and how many innocent lives lived there... he didn't want monsters to die out either.

Was there another option? Was it possible to find some sort of middle ground, where neither side had to die or be transformed? He didn't see how it could happen, but maybe there was a way....

"IT'S NICE TO MAKE A FRIEND FROM THE CAPITAL ASRIEL! IF YOU DON'T MIND ME ASKING, WHAT BRINGS YOU ALL THE WAY TO THE BORDER?" The skeleton's sudden shouting snapped him out of his thoughts. Apparently, he had slowed down and allowed Asriel to catch up without him realizing it.

"Uh... I'm just visiting, uh, Frisk. We're pretty close."

"WELL IF YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH FRISK, YOU MUST BE GREAT, JUST LIKE THEM, AND ME! IN THAT CASE, I AM LUCKY TO HAVE MET YOU, AND YOU ARE LUCKY TO HAVE MET ME!" Papyrus said. Asriel nervously grabbed one of his ears.

"I guess?" Asriel said, not entirely sure how to respond to, or even converse with the enthusiastic skeleton. Papyrus, however, seemed unfazed by Asriel's awkwardness, and continued on with the conversation without missing a beat. His pace was lightning fast; he switched from talking about the capital, to cooking, to puzzles, and eventually, himself. Asriel had always been rather shy, even among humans, but among overly enthusiastic monsters, his shyness was even more apparent. Talking to Papyrus was surprisingly easy, however; mostly because he didn't have to do much talking at all.

This walk to Undyne's was taking far too long.

____________________________________

Frisk was actually impressed; somehow, the field trip had gotten worse.

Normally, she would be ecstatic to be around Papyrus. He was easily the best friend she had by a large margin, and his enthusiasm and optimistic attitude was a major reason she found the strength to carry on in such a dark war. But right now, he didn't need to be here. Papyrus was... eccentric, but he was not stupid. Now that he had met Asriel, he would know something was up if he disappeared suddenly. The rumors of a human turned monster had spread to every corner of the kingdom by now. It wouldn't be hard for Papyrus, or someone else Papyrus would inevitably mention Asriel to, to connect the dots back to Asriel if nobody saw him again; though it might take some time.

This meant that more trips outside the cell would be mandatory for more than just his health. Now, they were going to have to actively lie to population of Greenlake. That... wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He needed to go outside. He deserved to go outside. And, if she were honest, she kind of liked seeing him like this. He had been more relaxed, at least for a little bit. Was this how he acted normally?

If the war had never happened, maybe they even could have been friends? He was nice, most of the time. It would be good to not always feel like his kindness was a facade.

No... he was a human, she was a monster. That's not how things work... right?

Sans had showed up to take care of his brother apparently. Although Frisk was still upset with him, she was thankful he had come when he got Alphys' call; she didn't want to deal with a situation like this with nobody to back her up except a sweaty lizard and an overly aggressive fish. Even if Sans could be a jerk sometimes, he was still, in truth, the best person to help with a situation like this.

At least she didn't have to worry about Papyrus' safety now. Though she did find herself worrying about Asriel's wellbeing instead. Sans was extremely protective of his brother.

"so how's the little outing going so far? sure seems like you have a handle on things" said Sans, mockingly.

"It... could be going better. It could also be going worse." Frisk shrugged. They had certainly accomplished their goal of letting the prisoner out, though, so that counts for something.

"well, that's good, i suppose. he hasn't gotten stab happy?"

"Haha, no. I told you, he's not like that." She looked back toward the prisoner. Undyne had moved herself between Papyrus and Asriel, which was probably a smart move, but it still felt unnecessary with someone like Asriel. "He did get angry at us earlier, but he's cooled off a bit."

"he seemed a bit on edge when i talked to him earlier. i figured he just didn't have a sense of humerus." said Sans, his smile growing slightly.

"Well, last time he was outside, he was still a human. Of course he's going to be on edge after so much of his life had been ripped away." She chuckled despite the topic she was discussing. "That pun was horrible, by the way. That might be the most forced pun you've made so far." Sans shrugged in response.

"So how exactly did Papyrus manage to make it all the way to us without you intervening?" asked Frisk.

"it's..." sans sighed. "it's my own fault. he went out to meet people, you know, like everyday, and i didn't even think about him going to the park until it was too late. he normally doesn't go to the park much, not enough people there, ya know? i came as soon as i realized where he had ended up." The two walked in silence for a moment after that.

"Go easy on Asriel, okay?" said Frisk. "He's been through a lot. He's not a bad person, Sans. The last thing I need is for you to say something that antagonized him or ruins this trip. He needs this. Literally."

"i get that, frisk. but he's human. you're never going to see eye to eye." he looked toward the three monsters in front of them, and saw Undyne and Papyrus conversing loudly, while Asriel stood a distance away, looking at the ground and playing with an ear. "he may be a nice guy and all, but you and hi-"

"Don't." Frisk cut him off.

"... but, he could still hurt us if he wanted to," said Sans, deciding yo change the course of his sentence last second.

"But he won't."

"willing to bet your life on it?" said Sans.

She didn't know how to answer that. Somehow, that was worse than having a definite answer. She didn't think he would ever try to hurt anyone. But did he really care about anyone here in the end? Or was this just some elaborate act? Everything she knew about him told her that his kindness being an act was nearly impossible. Yet there was the nagging feeling at the back of her mind that she was missing something, something important.

After a few moments of silence, Sans continued. "yeah, 's what i thought. if you won't trust him like that, neither can i when it comes to paps."

"There's still no need to antagonize him," replied Frisk," which is what I'm assuming went on earlier when you talked to him with Undyne?"

"what makes you think that?"

"Because when I tried to distract Papyrus by asking him to help me pack the picnic away, I was hoping you would use that time to come up with an excuse to get Papyrus anywhere but here. You didn't though. And there aren't many things that could distract you, other than the prisoner."

"welp, ya caught me. sorry," said Sans unapologetically.

The rest of the walk passed in relative silence until the group of monsters reached a suspiciously fishy (literally) house. Papyrus and Undyne motioned dramatically toward the house, while Asriel ducked underneath a stray arm from Undyne. Frisk could vaguely make out Undyne yelling about something, and she could see that while Papyrus was listening intently, Asriel sidestepped away from the two and was playing with one of his ears.

She noticed him do that a lot. It would actually be a cute habit, if it weren't obvious that he only did it when he felt uncomfortable.

Regardless, they still had at least a few hours left in this hangout. Even if it had sucked so far, Frisk was determined to make it at least less terrible by the end of it. And now that they had all entered Undyne's house, and were away from the rest of the monster town and all of the distractions that had come with it, she could focus on making things better. They had a movie to watch, Papyrus could show Asriel some of his puzzles, she could make a cake that wasn't terrible... as long as she's able to reign in Undyne.

Frisk cracked her knuckles. It was time to get to work.


End file.
